Pashosh Reminiscence
The Birds won three of their first four Supporter Week Trophy games, with their only - narrow - defeat coming against eight-time Israeli Ligat Ha´al champions, pashosh. While having dropped down into the fourth division, pashosh are hardly lacking for star power, with Suriname veteran international Jaden Raghoebar leading the left side of their attack, and eventually coming up with the winner.
The first half suggested a very different outcome, with
Lim An Keng nodding home a dropped
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan cross in the eleventh minute, and
Chad Thach and
Chan Ze Han then putting Grilled up 3-1 by the 38th. Roman Ivchenkov and Natan Zeira equalized by half-time, however, and after pashosh got it up to five,
Joe Reece made it 4-5 right before being subbed off for
Ibnou Balde, who couldn't make the difference.
Grilled Birds had seen off Kuwaiti II.3 runners-up A.C. Dizzo 3-2 before that, with Lim again getting the scoring off to a start, and Chan coming in after
Gandhik Chitre. Lim would make it three matches in a row with an 89th minute header to cap a 5-1 victory over H.I. IV.40 Bulgarian challengers TheBadBats2, before Chan, Thach and
Chia Kwang Tse each had two against H.A.L VII.607 side St Patrick's Athletic FC in a 7-2 whupping, that had Reece make up the remainder.
The Bunnies' opening day started well enough, with a non-walkover 5-0 off Mexican Division Five club Charros Negros, that had
Amirul Jufri Khairil start with a brace, before newcomers
Mauro Fau and
Ho Ah Kian joined in the fun together with
Vitaliy Efendiev. Ho kept on doing his thing as the Buns embraced their new, more-proactive approach, that was enough to put French fifth divisioners FC Relecq-Kerhuon away.
Tougher times were to come, however, with Swedish V.433 winners Ljungåsen FC notching up a late win, thanks to the creativity of their Argentine forward Jorge Roberto Brindisi, who read
Toh Eng Guang's mind on his switched-up pass. The Buns might yet have led at least from a storm of counterattacks in the first half, with Ho coming closest in the 13th minute, when his strong drive was barely warded off by Dutch goalkeeper Juliën Hamers, right on the goalline.
Five-time Indian I-League national champs Bangalore Tigers were up next, having just promoted back into II.3, and former Indian youth international Qaiser Sheraz won it 2-1 with the last serious attack of the match.
Ho Ah Kian flaunted his impressive aerial abilities as he popped up for an Efendiev corner in just the right place 22 minutes in, but Vikas Gowarikar then answered like for like, as ex-Brazilian U-20 star Rikelmi Lins Borges dug out a great cross from the left wing, in the 34th.
Grilled International struggled quite a bit more with three losses, with both Niespełnieni (Polish H.A.L VI.587) and RC Karlsruhe (German VI.368) managing 2-1 wins, aided amply by some horrendous defending by International both times. Nobody recognized Ferruccio Mannino's 67th minute run for Niespełnieni, so it seemed, while Racing's Spanish Number Nine Alejandro Valdueza was given far too much space all the time, and might well have gotten more than the brace he eventually reaped.
International then turned it around against Irish IV.1 club Finleys boys, with
Egidius van der Duin bringing up the heat in the 11th minute with some devil-may-care dribbling, and
Safari bin Hj Jali bagging two before
Shantinath Singh in a 4-2 result. Homegrown Kim McElligott found a headed brace as he made the most of International's indifferent marking, but Finleys' indiscipline cost them Sascha Schielau to a red card seven minutes from time, and three yellows besides.
It was back to the doghouse as Belize III.9 side Sygnathidae FC then dealt out a 4-0 hiding, on a hat-trick by Finnish forward Ari Kovanen, after a sparkling opener from current national youth midfielder René Zabala. Zabala's immaturity came to the fore in the 66th minute as he shoved
Zaini bin Hj Kaling and was sent off straight, but that didn't stop Kovanen from going on to score two more.
