Six Wins Not Enough
Grilled Birds fell just short of the Trophy of Legends last-64 playoffs as they finished in 86th place, moreover unbeaten with six victories and two draws. Their marquee seventh round fixture against distinguished Austrian Division Two champions Torpedo Wien Amateure did neither club any favours, with the 2-2 outcome condemning both to the same aggregate score.
Quite aware of what was at stake, the game would start cautiously with San Marino star Raul Collini controlling from the middle, before
Hwang Teck Fu rocked the opposition crossbar from a right-sided outburst.
Ananda Hettiarachchi and
Genki Nagano then fluffed decent chances, and Raul Collini volleyed home to give Amateure the lead in the 36th minute.
Genki probably saved the day by stopping Omer Safra's sprint next, and the Birds only came to life after
Wu Ping De replaced
Lim An Keng on the wing. This stretched Amateure's defence, and after a nice assist for
Chia Kwang Tse in the 70th, Wu would dribble in himself for 2-1 six minutes on. That looked to be enough for the Birds... until Ingemar Leijonbeck's backfooted pass got to rushing Czech leftback Daniel Vašíček in added time.
Swiss defender
Johann Schwietzer admitted that he was not over it. "I thought that was offside!"
This left Grilled Birds requiring a win from their final match against Polish IV.37 side Wysoki Stoczek Białystok to maintain the faint possibility of qualification, and they got off to an incredible start as
Lim An Keng,
Phillip Nagata and
Hisham Zubari got them 3-0 up by the thirteenth minute. Italian forward Maurizio Laudando put one back on another Hwang woodwork strike after 24 minutes, however, and he made the final seconds extra jittery with a stoppage time reducer. In any case, that proved to be insufficient for Grilled.
Farmer Bunnies lost both their Day Three matches to drop to 716th place with three wins and a draw, with German VI.340 side Familienbande shutting them out after James Kasapo's powerful fifteenth minute header from the edge of the six-yard box. A second yellow for Thorsten Kollmayer had the Germans down to ten men for the final eleven minutes, but the Buns were unable to break through.
Polish VI.177 contestants MKS Bagdad then defeated the Buns 2-1 after a busy but unproductive first half, the highlight of which was Paulo Gregory going down over
Wee Liang Teck's tackle in the 33rd minute. The referee inspected the replay, and duly booked Gregory for diving - to animated disbelief from the Costa Rican defender.
The match only really got going after Chinese winger Yi Xingbin's outswinging cross was met by Colombian counterpart Camilo Marín Marín's big right boot, but
Toh Eng Guang matched that with his own header three minutes later in the 57th minute. The Buns appeared to have the better odds at this point, but they didn't reckon on Mikel Mihaylov's individual shooting brilliance 78 minutes in.
Grilled International wound up a respectable 299th on a 5-1-2 record, while replicating the Birds' experience with a draw to kick the day off. This was against former H.I. IV.54 rivals The Sun men, who have somehow stayed put in that league across all these years.
Umut Koza gave them something to think about as he scored with his first touch two minutes in, and
Mohsen Zeynali made it 3-2 in the 70th with a sick chip over former Maldives youth international goalie Assad Rashad... but for flying winger Khalid Sanoon to switch flanks and tie it up with six minutes left.
International signed off with a good 5-3 win over French V.21 opponents AS Danemark 92, if with the former Trophée Rubis holders going in front through Portuguese attacker Clemente Veiga in the fifth minute.
Phua Li Kong responded with a brace, with
Khosrov Danelyan then converting a penalty, and lifting a free-kick to
Waldemar Gołata for 4-1. Mbaba Yade and Salomon Meny found goals for the Parisians in the second half, but
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan's 75th minute drive through Jonathan Maquin's legs afforded his side a margin of safety.
