Marttaliitto Keep Title
Thach Takes Crown
FC Marttaliitto might have lost their second league game after remaining undefeated for the first twelve fixtures, but they would win the II.2 championship despite falling 2-3 at The Cooking Pot. The well-attended finale would be great value for both sets of fans, boasting as it did some of the highest-quality football that they had output all season. The Birds would not be left entirely empty-handed either, as
Chad Thach captured his first scoring title, with his 37th minute strike.
Unlike some previous campaigns, there remained all to play for in the last round, with West Merlions still within striking distance of the visitors. Uzbek boss Yosi Lochinov had a full squad to pick from with the exception of 38 year-old former Iranian national midfielder Ehsan Chahar Rahi, who had sustained a serious calf injury against Antilopi Burkin a week or so back. Rahi had been a reserve for some time, though, and thus there were few surprises in Marttaliitto's 4-5-1. Big Sri Lankan signing Ahamed Kamil started on the right, with Martin Üres on the left and national star Koh Chi Leng in defence.
Against this would be
Dan Alstani's usual, if with
Lim An Keng at left wing instead of
Wu Ping De being the minor tweak. For a time, it almost felt like Marttaliitto were the home side, as they exerted a sort of passive control with their floating, ever-present press. A stumble by
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko had forward Juan Miguel Espinoza in test
Radomil Marcol in the nineteenth minute, before Swedish veteran Suthat Mok-jok belied supposed poor form to ace a low shot past the goalkeeper, 26 minutes in.
There might have been nothing concrete in this contest for the Birds, but their fans were still rightly displeased by the lack of fight shown thus far. Skipper
Genki Nagano would rouse his teammates in earnest in response, and it swiftly looked a lot better for Grilled.
Chad Thach had refined his striking skills over the years, and his experience showed when he sold Bogdan Karyagin a subtle dummy as a 29th minute cross came in, when his younger self might have tried to brute force it; the feint worked, but the slightly off-balance header then came off the bar.
The attempt had the home supporters bouncing anyway, and the heat continued to rise with
Hwang Teck Fu's following volley barely three minutes later, that was also a little too high.
Ananda Hettiarachchi was pulling strings brilliantly after being overwhelmed by Matteo Sciamanna before, and his darting out to the right exposed a route to
Chad Thach, who walloped it into the near post on reflex. Suthat Mok-jok was retrospectively booked for felling Ananda a fraction too late, and it could have been 2-1 several minutes later, when
Genki Nagano hammered it into Gildardo Bambague from three yards.
That wasted chance might have been met by evident dismay from the home fans, but from how Grilled Birds started the second half, their eventually taking the lead had to be a formality. Grilled were stroking the ball through FC Marttaliitto's territory with a foreboding rhythm, and it was only the excellent reading of their backline that protected Bambague... for all of six minutes. All three forwards might have been tightly marked in the 51st, but
Aw Keng Chuan was happy to remind that he had a catapult of a right leg too.
The Birds were hardly slowing after that, and
Lim An Keng soon put in a few serviceable crosses from the left.
Hwang Teck Fu took over in the 58th minute after rotating out wide, and it was the pick of the lot, requiring Koh Chi Leng to knock it behind with
Chia Kwang Tse hovering. It then came full circle with Chia heading the initial corner over on Bambague's fingertip save, and the second attempt had Hwang make it 3-1 after
Chad Thach got mobbed on his first touch.
It would be a busy day at work for Colombian custodian Gildardo Bambague indeed, and he would be called upon to bail his team out again in the 71st, as nobody picked up
Genki Nagano on yet another of his searching runs out of defence. Grilled were admittedly less convincing without the ball, and a bad misunderstanding five minutes later had
Hisham Zubari trapped in a two-on-one situation. Espinoza generously laid it the other way for Tommi Törnström after luring Zubari in, and the Finnish fullback snatched it past the oncoming
Radomil Marcol.
That made for a nervier final fifteen minutes than the Birds probably deserved, what more with conflicting demands coming from the stands.
Lim An Keng leant more to the attacking camp, and he gave Bambague something to think about with a magnificent curler from the right edge of the box, that the goalkeeper was however equal to once more. FC Marttaliitto seized the opportunity to launch it deep, and it was then Marcol's turn to slap Martin Üres' attempt aside.
