Strong Finish
Grilled Birds won their final two Trophy of Legends matches to conclude the tournament at 4-1-3 with 13 points, putting them 2298th of 6296 teams, and an improvement over their two latest entries. Swedish Division Five side BrännöBK were first up, and put away 3-0 thanks to an excellent day from
Lim An Keng. He would first assist
Aw Keng Chuan from a corner, before spotting a lapse and going it himself in the 77th minute.
Bhavya Panigrahi then slotted a late penalty past Giovanni Ravarotto to settle it.
Spanish VI.189 outfit Deóbriga proved a tougher nut to crack, and it was well that
Moey Xin Seng managed to squeeze it past Dutch goalie Borger Soekhlal - with the aid of a slight deflection - when he did. There would be next to no chances on show in the second half, as Deóbriga evinced no urgency to find an equalizer either.
It would be a drawn ending for Farmer Bunnies, who closed at 984th of 1812 participants, on a 3-2-3 record. Stamina would be their downfall in both matches, as their younger set had apparently not gotten used to back-to-back tests just yet. Swiss VI.703 side FC Ebikon were down to goals from
Jerad Meyer and
Guan Ming Kum in the 75th minute, then turned it all around as Vasyl Kryvyi and Romano Katzenstein got through within a minute of each other.
Belgian VI.728 winners AMOR as would be the Buns' final matchup, and it would be
Lim Su Liang to score in a busy, crazy first half, for what might be his last goal in the white shirt. Alas, the curse of limited endurance struck again, and after Philippe Kerker somehow kept
Vitaliy Efendiev's thunderbolt out in the 79th minute, the restart after several subs had Spanish forward Salaheddine Souiri blaze through to claim a share of the points.
Grilled International achieved their best record ever in the Heroes of 2017 Trophy, as they finished a very respectable 304th, with six wins and two losses. They had to battle for it, with their opener against Colombian IV.41 side Puercos possibly going either way. This was notable as International were 4-0 up at one point, with
Wang Hanxuan piling on at the start of the second half. Puercos were far stronger in the final straight, however, and International had
Chua Jun Long to thank for watching out during a corner, as one-man army Augusto Gianola threatened to force a draw by himself late.
Dutch fifth divisioners KVNL put up a stiff fight too, but their resistance through Greek forward Kleovoulos Vardinoyiannis was ultimately a cut below what Puercos put out.
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh matched Vardinoyiannis's efforts with a brace, as the game finished 4-2 to International.
For all that, head coach
Didi Reidenbach understood that his continued tenure rested on whether the club comes good in their qualifier against Avatar FF, this Friday. "I don't think there are going to be any more chances."
