Boys In Three
Grilled Birds finished 2298th of 6234 participants in the latest Trophy of Legends, on four wins and a draw from eight games, after a win and draw on the final day. Neither were easy assignments by any means, with German VI.503 outfit Erftstadt-Boys stretching the Birds despite their 2-3 defeat, in the first match. Mongolian ex-national U-20 midfielder Yaba Qadan slung a beautiful lob over
Dimitris Germanakos in the seventh minute to begin with, and although
Joe Reece,
Lim An Keng and
Federico Parada piled up the goals, Niko Kleber's cool finish 70 minutes in had Grilled nervous until the end.
Finnish VI.601 winners Keravan aktiivinen pallo 2013 then came from behind thrice to tie at three-all, with Reece again scoring either side of
Aw Keng Chuan's unexpected second-minute breakthrough, and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's prospective headed to-be-winner in the 84th minute, which was however quickly matched by Iikka Kuoppala's own acrobatic nod. It was a result that everyone could accept, happily, and the Birds could leave with their heads held high.
The Buns split their results on the final day to a disappointing 1535th of 1700 participants in the Heroes of 2014 Trophy, with just two victories and six defeats. Portuguese VI.118 runners-up The_Phenoms met the Buns in an identical 5-3-2, and the waiting game would yield just
Vitaliy Efendiev's free-kick winner, in the 30th minute. Austrian fifth division side Vitus were more forward-looking, and after constantly knocking on the door, Aaron Mason finally forced it past
Gilberto Sorondo in the 39th minute. There were a couple of interesting late counters by
Lim Guang Qiang and then
Toh Eng Guang at the death, but neither came good.
It was the same for Grilled International, who wound up 2986th of 3704 clubs, on a 2-2-4 record. Their first fixture took place close to home, with Penang's The Ghost FC nearly coming back from two down, as Fedro Fachal and Goh Loong Eng raced to score within a minute of each other around the 82nd.
Umut Koza would not stand for that, however, and he soared high on
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan's cross a couple of minutes later, to sink the III.9 representatives.
German Division Seven side FC Aerzte would punish International 5-3 in the final contest, however, which brought more gloom to their long-suffering supporters. "How did they lose that?" one of them, who declined to be named, moaned. "Sixty percent of the ball, and so little done with it!"
