Moving Into The Lead
Belhocine Regret
Grilled Birds unexpectedly overtook Singapore Big Dogs at the head of the table, after today's 4-1 away victory against Laughing Kookaburras at their packed Winnetou Reborn Arena. Algerian defender
Houssam Belhocine will not be there for the cliffhanger, alas, due to being sent off for an overcooked challenge midway through the second half.
Dan Alstani was not afraid to make bold tactical changes with the stakes at hand, which had
Ananda Hettiarachchi sensationally dropped for both
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Hisham Zubari to start in central midfield. As for Laughing Kookaburras, they entered the game on a four-game win streak in the league since frunzelax's double over them; their latest match against Joker 9 was close, but Andrea Risi helped them to a valuable 3-2 win.
The Italian Number Eight would return together with Yaba Baasanjav in attack today, but Hungarian head coach János Nyíri elected for a counterattacking 5-3-2 that had Sebastian Żyrek fall back into central defence, and attacking midfielder Jiwan Sarkini sacrificed for a third centreback in Zerach Eizenshtein. The strategy wasn't too complicated either - allow Grilled Birds to come at them, and then lump it for Risi to chase, or Baasanjav to hold up.
This got off to a remarkably bad start for the hosts, though, given that they conceded on their first attempt at putting it into play, right in the second minute.
Hisham Zubari was allowed to advance essentially unchecked as the Kookaburras fell back even before he arrived, with Nigel Bolger tracking Marzuki instead. They hadn't counted on how cleverly
Chad Thach could create space for himself, which he did with a little drag-back on Zubari's pass to throw Żyrek off, before cutting sharly inside Eizenshtein.
Romanian custodian Vlad-Cristian Albină had no real shot at saving Chad's effort from six yards, and he would have to pick the ball out of his net again just four minutes on, after
Wu Ping De shook off his marker to get onto an ambitious
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko through ball. Laughing Kookaburras were barely hanging on now, as
Chad Thach and
Hisham Zubari were then warded off at the last second by last-ditch tackles.
The second of those would allow the Kookaburras to launch their first real counterattack at least, with Vlad Bubu having acres of room to operate on the right. He floated it across to the accelerating Andrea Risi as Grilled's back two struggled to catch up, and the Italian forward took it all the way before sidefooting it neatly past
Radomil Marcol, into his far bottom corner.
Grilled were not done with their high-pressure offensives yet, and they went straight back to slinging passes around the Kookaburra box on the restart. Eizenshtein would direct his defence pretty well, but even he could not have counted on the sheer accuracy of
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's right boot in the sixteenth minute. Albină was positioned correctly, which made no difference as the ball swirled seemingly wide, before dipping in at the far post for 3-1!
The next half an hour had to be a disappointment after all that had happened, and had even the home support whistle for more action after awhile. The Birds were however in no hurry to engage, having secured a two-goal lead and seen what the hosts could do on the counter, while the Kookaburras hardly got enough of the ball to launch their own attacks. They tended to look towards captain Domonkos Marjai on the left when they regained possession, but
Phillip Nagata was more than willing to act more defensively now.
Cambodian referee Visal Ngo ended the draggy first-half on the dot, but the second didn't start off any better, with the Birds content to stay with what had worked. They were not entirely against the odd raid when obvious openings presented themself, such as in the 60th minute when Marzuki played
Chia Kwang Tse inside. Chia went for the volley with Flaviu Filipinyi throwing up a leg ineffectively, which Albină tipped over for a corner with some difficulty.
Laughing Kookaburras then got the boost they needed - or so they might have thought - as Ngo sent
Houssam Belhocine off for a vicious barge into Risi, after the forward made to show him a clean pair of heels. Marjai's free-kick went nowhere, however, and it turned out that Belhocine had not been much involved anyhow.
Hisham Zubari simply played deeper, and the Birds seemed none the worse for wear.
The man advantage did appear to aid the Kookaburras on their next big breakaway, which came right after
Chia Kwang Tse rammed a drive straight back off the upright in the 66th minute. Lenin Hidalgo picked it up after it was scrambled further wide, with multiple teammates making a run for it in the meantime. The long ball out eventually went to fellow fullback Samuele Discanni, but the Aussie was perhaps too impatient, and sent it high instead of setting himself.
It was then Grilled Birds' turn to strike at undermanned opposition, as
Radomil Marcol blasted the goal-kick downfield as quickly as he could, which brought the strange sight of
Genki Nagano careening up the left wing with
Wu Ping De having stayed back. Albină saved the rather unconvincing shot, but
Chad Thach then hit it home three minutes later, to put himself level with frunzelax's still-injured Jayadevan Satarkar for the Golden Boot.
