Skrzydelka Regale
This Trophy of Legends began with two wins and a narrow loss for Grilled Birds, about par for the course as these things go. Polish IV.33 side one-2-beat, eleven-time Division Five champions, were Grilled's opening act, and were put down by braces from
Chia Kwang Tse and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul with Fabian Ottenberg tapping in a 19th minute equalizer.
Chia Kwang Tse went one better in the 6-1 rout of Austrian IV.7 opponents Sk.St.Magdalena next, as he shook off his recent rust; Philipp Fuchs might have thought his team in with a chance after opening in the eleventh, but he was badly mistaken.
Both these fixtures combined would not quite measure up to the next game against fellow II.2 third-place finishers Skrzydelka, who duly got one back for Poland.
Gandhik Chitre skinned Andrzej Agata for an amusing first goal in the eighth minute, only for Juan Rivera and Fryderyk Dzianach to exert revenge. Marzuki levelled with a long shot in the 32nd minute, but Petar Ranković and Andrzej Rygiel got Skrzydelka up to 4-2 by half-time. Alas,
Chad Thach off a
Darko Andrović assist would be the Birds' only goal despite controlling much of the second half, not for any lack of exertion from Thach, who was booked together with Amadeusz Ciepieniak about the 84th minute after a brief fracas.
The Buns surprisingly fared better with two wins and a draw, starting with a 2-0 over Polish VI.186 contestants Akademia Piłkarska RP, who found themselves on the wrong end of a
Lim Su Liang double. Finnish VI.971 winners Teurastamon Pihan Pallopiiri of Helsinki then kept the Buns to a goalless draw, with goalkeeper Janne Painokallio blocking
Gabriel Priebe's 72nd minute penalty - admittedly one of the American legend's weaker takes.
Priebe would not miss against Trinidad & Tobage Number One Kevin Shorter in the next fixture versus Peruvian IV.38 side Los Freudianos, however, this after he had already fed
Dušan Václavík from a free-kick for the lead in the twelfth minute. Juvenal Zaccaria embarassed Václavík in the 57th minute to get one back, but
Lee Yau Tong confirmed the 3-1 victory in the 77th, after several very-watchable counterattacks.
Grilled International matched the Birds' record beginning with Spanish V.76 strugglers Makoka, who had
Umut Koza punish them with a swift first-half brace in a 0-5 thrashing. International would be on the other end against H.I. III.14 club metal allstars, also from Spain, with winger Joaquín Basoa notching two against
Leri Bezhanishvili's consolation, and Diego Saavedra's collected 12th minute finish for 3-1.
It was then Czech Republic V.90 club AFC LESTINA to take on Grilled International in the third round, and they held out for 33 minutes before a handball in the box gave
Khosrov Danelyan a penalty to convert. The Armenian made no mistake with Jānis Goziņš moving far too early, and
Chua Jun Long went airborne to complete the job in the 73rd minute, from a marvellous mid-air swing.
