Out With A Whimper
The Birds' long season appears to have taken a real toll on them, as they concluded one of their poorer Trophy of Legends runs, with just two wins and three draws accompanying a +5 goal difference. This had them 3244th of 5914 participants, or below par.
Grilled will take the league title anyday, of course, but it was at times hard to watch them play against Romanian V.53 entrants Berceni Suceava.
Gústav Thoroddsen was admittedly desperately unlucky to see it come back off the bar in the second minute, and Suceava took their time preparing for the ensuing corner, which Danish playmaker Jon Harboe thumped in. Another Thoroddsen failure had
Chad Thach sent off trying to stop the counter, and the free-kick would go to Nestor Persinger for 2-0 anyhow.
Brian Reddy weaved some magic to get one back three minutes later, but the
Joe Reece hit his equalizer attempt right to a grateful Anı Kumral, after good dribbling from
Federico Parada.
The lengthily-named Swiss V.211 club The scottish proud of independence were up next, and this game saw four goals by the fourteenth minute. Bohdan Ilyashov and Daniel Brown gave the Birds little time to react, as former Scots U-20 winger Brad Bennie worked the left intelligently. Grilled had
Federico Parada and
Orest Tokarz score in the next five minutes as Independence proved less than stable at the back, and the Birds spent much of the final fifteen minutes trying to find a winner. They seemed bust when Daniel Brown scored against the run of play in the 87th minute, but
Gústav Thoroddsen's never-say-die attitude saw him break through out of sheer will, in stoppage time.
As for Farmer Bunnies, American IV.33 winners SPD were next up, and the Florida team would fall prey to two
Prakash Bhujbal sucker punches late, chasing yet another
Vitaliy Efendiev free-kick opener. The Buns would finally concede their first goal - and loss - against local rivals The Sing Tigers, who have just won promotion from III.2. Sentis Asaris angled a flying header down past
Gilberto Sorondo in the 19th minute, leaving the El Salvador ace goalie distraught at the loss of his incredible record. Franciszek Kornatka's sending-off for an angry shove on
Lau Keng Kwang left the Buns to push hard for the last twelve minutes, but
Ho Ah Kian could only come very close, with a lob coming off the crossbar.
This still meant that the Buns ended up a very respectable 463rd with thirteen points on a 3-4-1, of 1528 entries. "We just needed a bit more bite up top - but anyone could see that." head coach
Vishnu Tallapaka noted. There would be no response to the reporters' follow-up on whether the club was planning to deploy some of their considerable warchest, which has been reported to have breached the hundred million level, though.
There was only continued pain for Grilled International as their increasingly-obvious weaknesses were exploited, as they ended up 2627th of 3156 clubs in the Heroes of 2017 Trophy tourney, with only seven points and a -6 goal difference. They had the excuse of coming close against Argentine VI.943 leaguewinners Gladiadores de Vivi, with
Egidius van der Duin fluffing several open chances before
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan got it back to 2-1, with six minutes left and the Argentines flagging.
Hungarian VI.454 champs Futrinka more or less blew International away in the final match, however, and while
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh and
Mohsen Zeynali got a brace each in the 4-7 defeat, this was clearly due to generosity from Futrinka, who seldom looked in any real trouble. If it is of any consolation, though, word in the street is that
Didi Reidenbach may finally be bringing in more new blood upfront. "And about time too!" disgruntled fan Mohd Harun Yaqeen said. "Finally, they think of us."
