Wonderful Beginnings
Grilled's foray into the Supporter Week Trophy got the perfect start, as they swept their first four matches. First to get the brunt of the Birds' attack would be English IV.25 side WonderMan's Team F.C., as the Yorkshire club's streak of ten competitive victories counted for naught.
Kalki Parvathaneni wrapped up a busy hat-trick in the 84th minute with
Heng Dong Chu blossoming late with a brace, while Belgian veteran Jeremie Smets found a consolation in the 1-8 hammering.
Spanish fourth divisioners ronkis78 FC had the stealthy Leodis Townsend in excellent poaching form, but despite his opening the scoring and then making another from the right side, Grilled would still pull through 6-3 boosted by the on-song
Chu Xin Lee. Chu would then lead the team once more against Azerbaijani Güclülər Dəstəsi representatives AC Mugan, who were never allowed to get into their rhythm in a 4-0 shutout.
Only Spanish H.I. IV.4 team metal allstars stood between Grilled and maximum first-day points now, and given that they had won their initial three games by considerable margins too, they must have been fancying their chances. Grilled had other ideas, and ran up a 5-1 scoreline, including a rare marauding strike by an energetic
Bhavya Panigrahi in the 27th. Ramon Chaler would nick one back for metal allstars on the hour, but any hopes of an epic comeback were mostly dissipated by the time fullback Veselin Kochev got sent off for an uncalled-for violent foul on
Heng Dong Chu.
Head coach
Hovaness Noubaryan didn't have too much to nitpick about. "The guys have all done their jobs quite well,
Chan Ze Han and
Islom Davlatov were great as substitutes too. The coaches will be looking out for areas of improvement, but so far the main things are being done nicely."
Farmer Bunnies on the other hand had to endure an opening defeat to German Division Two club TSV Schwarme, probably in part due to
Sofian Azfar's 27th minute sending-off for a prolonged tangle with former Bulgarian youth international Nikola Kostov. Kostov would speed past
Lau Chang Wan to score TSV Schwarme's second in their eventual 3-2 win, as the Buns found their choices limited against a team with such a similar preferred style.
One bright spot would be
Mushtag Al-Nameeri's form, and the Yemeni forward would follow up his goal against TSV Schwarme with a hat-trick versus Brazilian fifth divisioners Carvoeiro1947. Saudi sidekick
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany would lift some worries about
Nurlan Ablaev's unavailability too, with some clever distribution and a neat put-in of his own in the 43rd minute from
Tham Leng Teck's assist.
Mushtag's scoring streak would be extended against Danish V.237 challengers vi taber alt, in a rain-sogged fixture that would only come to life after Azfar's counterattack redemption in the 65th minute. Another German club in Roter Stern Neudrossenfeld were then scheduled, and this time
Richard Agyei and
Brendan Leung set the Buns on the path to a 2-1 victory, against the Division Five side.
Grilled International had rather more mixed outcomes, and they would need to savour their opening 5-0 walkover over Norwegian V.181 club FC Red Horse, because they wouldn't manage any other victories to their name. Belarus third division runners-up Azmooser Pipistrelli held firm in defence, and rode their three early goals to an easy triumph.
International would then rack up a couple of draws, the first of them a 2-2 against Swiss Division Five outfit HFC Öufi, and then a less-forgivable letdown versus Dutch Division Five side fcandirasama.
Wang Hanxuan's dizzy opener would be wasted by poor defending leading to Artur Dziewocki's equalizer, and while International had their opponents on the ropes through the entire second half, there was to be no finishing blow.
Tibor Atzenhain did make some waves after entering with ten minutes left, but in the end the best they could do was a
Ragib Banović effort out off the crossbar.
