Mitos Was
Tian Setup
The El Balon del Mundo semifinal turned out to be something of a farce, after Nikolay Bogutskiy and Tamás Lakatos' unscheduled absence meant that Campeonato Brasileiro challengers Mito86 FC began with a severe disadvantage, and it was fairly impressive that they managed to score twice against the Birds. Of course, the match had long been decided by then, with Grilled captain
Tian Yonghang taking center stage.
It had not been the best of weekends for Mito86 FC, who took their first loss in six competitive matches against Brazil legends ZIUL F.C. on Sunday; this appeared to have carried over, with unconfirmed rumours that their midfielders were sitting this one out in protest.
It was not like the Birds to be overly sympathetic, and Tian was spotted instructing his fellows to get into the Mito86 half, straight from kick-off. He definitely led by example, skewing an improvised shot barely wide after three minutes. Birger Rickmann was struggling to keep tabs on midfield, but got his team a breather after getting caught by a reckless
Neeraj Muthyala tackle, that warranted an immediate booking.
Mitos were fighting an uphill battle here, though, with Phillipp Freudenberger unable to keep up his usual composed front in the face of Grilled's unending flurry of attacks. One of them resulted in a 12th minute corner, from which
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim amply assured his supporters that his legs had some spring in them yet. 1-0.
Muthyala would rip through a frazzled Mitos86's lines to supply Wong for the second within minutes, and
Tian Yonghang closed shop with back-to-back strikes, right after the half-hour mark. Some Mitos86 fans in the stands, perhaps haunted by the Mineirazo, were seen leaving about then.
They would ensure that it would not be a whitewash, when homegrown right winger Tobias Macedo beat both Muthyala and Fillipone for pace, before centering for French striker Firas Ben Khalfallah to score; the 34 year-old had evidently had enough of the Grilled support's jibes, and made a slightly rude gesture on running past them, which was fortunately for him not spotted by the match officials.
It didn't change the fact that Mitos86 remained in a deep hole, to which coach Friedrich Knierim's answer was to get his forwards wide, to receive the ball in space. It did get them more time in Grilled's final third, but yielded few actual chances, leaving
Djan Bacelar to shake the match up by getting
Zhao Jing Wei in for
Lee Lee Hao, after 70 minutes.
Zhao would make an immediate impact, crafting a breakout that saw Tian complete his hat-trick in style, but Grilled would be reduced to ten men straight after that. Trouble had been brewing between Muthyala and Macedo for a long time, and when Muthyala reacted to some perceived slight by pushing the Brazilian, it could only have resulted in an early shower.
Not that it mattered much, with there being no indication that Mitos86 could close a four-goal gap in the remaining time, though Firas Ben Khalfallah did manage another one on the counter, after
Gene Filippone had put an average effort over.
