Hamrane Nonharam
The season-end Trophy of Legends started with two victories and a high-scoring draw for Grilled Birds, with Dutch Division Six long-timers FC AMSREGLE first up - and going down 0-8.
Hwang Teck Fu, fresh off his Golden Boot, gave a tutorial on throwing his weight around the box with three goals within four minutes towards the end of the first half, to wind up with four goals;
Lim An Keng got the first two,
Phillip Nagata the last, and
Johann Schwietzer contributed a 57th minute penalty hard to Jakob Wolfgruber's right post.
Chad Thach could not help but be impressed by how Hwang had mopped up three second chances, having as he had a front-row view. "It was like Haaland just materialized."
Former Norwegian national league and cup winners FC Hamrane - now in III.11 - were a far tougher proposition, and while they might not have a Haaland of their own, they had a pretty good facsimile in Belgian Number Nine Sokratis Samoladas. With Italian maestro Manuel Pagnini pulling strings in midfield, they answered
Hwang Teck Fu's opener to take a first-half lead, later extended to 4-2 via Velasco Balaguer's 69th minute poach. Grilled wouldn't give in, however, and
Genki Nagano reduced four minutes later, and Hwang assisted
Chad Thach for the equalizer in stoppage time.
That heart-stopping four-all draw would be followed by a much more staid 2-0 result against Polish VI.459 representatives Widzew Łódź, who could have shown more ambition in their fixture. Their 5-3-2 created but a single attack of note by Jani Kortelainen in the 36th minute, as the Birds won through goals by
Chia Kwang Tse and second-half sub
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, with Greek goalkeeper Ninos Mpampiniotis saving a bunch of others. This left Grilled Birds in 595th position of 5098 entrants, and very much still with a shot at the knockout phase.
The Buns situated themselves comparably in 597th place, though with only 1122 participants in the Heroes of 2014 Trophy, on a lose-win-draw opening day. Finnish IV.32 club Sikatorin Ponnistus first left them with little to work with from a breathless offensive, finally breaking the Buns' line in the 62nd minute through Valtteri Helin. Robert Pipić nodded a second home six minutes later, before Heinz Weyermann fooled
Gilberto Sorondo with a penalty down the middle for 3-0.
The second match against German VI.711 side FC Home-Rot-Weiß went better, as the former Rubin-Pokal (Liga VII) holders were put down 2-0 after composed finishes by
Dušan Václavík and
Ong Li Jing. Slovakia IV.25 outfit Sokol Donovaly then played out a nil-all with the Buns reduced to pointless long shots from unreasonable distances, and if attendees had a right to ask for a refund, this game should well qualify.
It was one win only for Grilled International as they took 1362nd position of 2160 teams in the Heroes of 2017 Trophy, if after a bright start against Italian VII.889 side The Joker Club. With several regulars sold, 38 year-old
Chua Jun Long was back to helming the attack, and he did not disappoint with a brace in this 6-1 win. French left winger Miguel José de Morais got the Jokers' consolation from a deep early cross, in the sixth minute.
The second fixture against Polish III.5 team FC Somali Pirates went a lot worse, especially after
Phua Li Kong got sent off for a second yellow, in the aftermath of Jakub Dębicki's 51st minute strike. Gustaw Nita and Kamil Kogut then happily punished the ten-man International, though
Mohsen Zeynali came very close to tying it up with a magnificent curler than Wiktor Stasz got his fingertips to.
Utter humiliation by Austrian V.108 challengers Ksc Fcb D followed, with International leaking seven goals without reply against their far more organized opponents. There was no stopping Peter Österreicher as he overwhelmed
Stef Vreys for a hat-trick, and
Darshana De Abrew appeared to have all but given up when Andreas Proksch cut past
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan to make it 7-0 in added time.
