Zero From Three
It was a terrible second day of the tournament for Grilled, whose defensive frailties saw them lose all three of their fixtures. Reigning Czech Pohár moravské orlice winners SK Maccabi Komín were admittedly worthy winners, even if
Chan Ze Han did give the Birds a flicker of hope, with his enthralling 82nd minute dribble to pull it back to 2-3. Lee Bennett would extend Maccabi's lead once more, sadly, and
Kalki Parvathaneni would be sent off for all but assaulting Alexandre Harlay to retrieve the ball.
The Kalki-less Birds would all but surrender to another former national challenger cup winner in Luxembourg's NSF Lëtzebuerg, who ended the first half four goals up, much credit to their combative Kyrgyz forward Tolkun Abdirasulov. Grilled would overcome in the second half as
Neeraj Muthyala and
Florus Romijn beat Gunther Goetschalckx from up close, but that was only enough to make the scoreline up to 2-5.
Worse was to come against German Division Five champs FC Püttberge 15, and it was perhaps the most disappointing result of the lot, given that Grilled had the lion's share of possession for once. Püttberge's multicoloured shirts were suffocating in defence and incisive on the front foot, though, and they went five up before
Islom Davlatov salvaged some pride with his volley on Romijn's pullback.
The Buns would start strongly against Dutch sixth division side Garden of Eden '15, but the three-nil win was ferociously contested indeed, as both
Sim Leng Cheng and Garden's Kas Van Bogget were dismissed for two yellows. German Division Four FC Star of the south then edged Farmer Bunnies 3-2 with former youth international Eckehart Brinkum conducting, with
Jon Benson failing to capitalize on a great chance to equalize late.
They would recover to record another 3-0 against American fourth division club València Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., who could find no way past the obdurate Buns back five.
Enzo Paolo Panzarino took Los Che's initial edge off with a raking opener, with
Morgan Hu bombing down the wings to put a lid on things.
On Grilled International's part, they did well against Italian Division Seven club MESSIa's team, with
Zaini bin Hj Kaling unusually effective from right wing. Zaini's brace and a
Wang Chu Chi blitz came before Dino Cazzato got one back on the counter, but
Fausto Perono cannoned a penalty down the middle for a 4-1 victory.
Another Zaini double and 4-1 win was on the cards against Icelandic fourth divisioners SK Brann X, but Portugal's fatima sport clube were a bridge too far. International could well have emerged with a draw even then, but a marauding Arménio Rocha Gomes would win it with two in the final five minutes.
