All Guns Blazing
The Birds lost a second Supporter Week Trophy game in the second day, if to Yemeni League challengers and Al Yaman Cup winners International Arsenal. Grilled actually created more recognized chances than Arsenal, but less-than-ideal finishing - especially from
Chad Thach - meant that their only goal came from
Lim An Keng's inventive 27th minute lob. Unfortunately, Grilled were already two down from strikes by Ben Weberkoppel and Sidiki Muhusin before that, and Sri Lankan veteran Thilina Cooray closed the match off from Alexander Inyakhin's superb assist, 77 minutes in.
If there was any consolation for the Birds, it was how sharp an... experienced team could be. "They might be some years more advanced on average, but boy did they know how to use the ball."
Hisham Zubari commented. "There's always more to learn."
Grilled Birds proceeded to take their other two fixtures, first against newly-promoted Polish V.67 club Narew 2 Choroszcz, whose Portuguese winger Domingos Negrinho stunned
Radomil Marcol with a first-minute poach at the back post. Choroszcz lasted about forty minutes before twin efforts by
Chad Thach and
Hwang Teck Fu reversed the scoreline five minutes before the break, and the second half had
Wu Ping De slice home a third upon replacing
Lim An Keng, and
Hwang Teck Fu mop up his own rebound next for 4-1.
A 5-2 result against Israeli V.107 side Real "Ivan" Madrid FC completed the day, with Hwang grabbing another brace despite the personal attentions of Madrid's dutiful centreback, Sergio Ramos. Additional clean finishes by
Lim An Keng and
Phillip Nagata had Grilled four up by the 57th minute, upon which Yan Kuperstein and Victor Okocha kept it interesting.
Ananda Hettiarachchi's clever footwork made a fifth for
Chad Thach in the 69th minute, though.
Farmer Bunnies suffered a first defeat to begin the day too, as Suriname II.3 representatives Kruktutere fu Suriname stuck two past
Gilberto Sorondo via former Honduran youth winger Freddy Resplandor.
Arun Ponnusamy, usually such a reliable man-marker, simply could not match Resplandor's acceleration, which had Kruktutere look good for an instant Hoofdklasse return.
A 1-1 draw against Barbados outfit Card Sharks was next, with the Homegrown League IV.44 side levelling through a Tom Petersen tap-in 69 minutes in, soon after young Number One Lindy Curling had saved the game with a magnificent flying save off
Prakash Bhujbal's bullet header. There was nothing he could have done about
Lim Guang Qiang's 32nd minute rifling volley into the top left corner, especially given that he was unsighted by a defender.
The Buns finally got a win against Peruvian V.17 entrants Pumas Andinos F.C., who could not find a way past their low block. A deft Crossfield reverse ball by Tullio Faro in the 25th minute was as good as it got for the Pumas, but Swiss winger Jürgen Aellen couldn't get it under control.
Dušan Václavík's towering leap onto an
Amaya Ravula delivery after 42 minutes wound up settling it for Farmer Bunnies, with the second half near entirely featureless.
Grilled International copped two defeats as they continued blooding their new players, with Polish V.246 side Młodzież Polski first outlasting them 5-4 in a raw thriller. The match remained finely balanced at three-all when
Chua Jun Long entered in the 70th minute, but
Khosrov Danelyan gifted Młodzież the lead with a thoughtless back-header past his own goalie four minutes later. Chua nearly emerged the hero as he outran Einar Endresen to equalise in stoppage time, but teenager Przybysław Polechoński then won it as the Poles mobbed International's box for the final attack.
The same scoreline would be repeated against Armenian III.8 opponents Tirig Terriers, as the Division Three champions raced to a 5-2 lead by the hour mark, from braces by Mourad Nalbandyan and Narek Minasyan. This was however also a great showing from
Nabil bin Mohd Zulkhairi, who had broken through to give International the lead in the fourth minute. Nabil's commitment was undoubted as he was booked for a necessary tackle on Minasyan in the 36th, and there would be a second goal from lobbing Thaddaeus Zuniga later.
International's luck turned against English V.92 club Goal Diggers F.C. on the third try, with the Warwickshire outfit coming off second best in yet another slugfest. It was the Diggers' turn to chase as
Snæbjörn Sigfússon,
Khosrov Danelyan and
Mohsen Zeynali ran up a 3-0 lead by the 35th minute, and Kevin Alleyne's brave diving header sparked drama at the beginning of stoppage time. There would be no bottling it for International this time, however, as they retained possession for the two minutes remaining to win 4-3.
