Home Stretch Sweep
Grilled Birds won all three of their final-day matches in the Supporter Week Trophy to finish a respectable 2012nd of 27198 entrants, with seven victories, three losses and a +12 goal difference. German H.I. IV.62 club Munich Giants were first up, and savaged by braces from national U-20 teammates
Chia Kwang Tse and
Lim An Keng, with the Birds racing to a 5-0 lead. Luitger Langereihe got two back bombing forward from midfield as the Giants worked their flanks hard, but
Chan Ze Han would end it 6-2 with an eye-catching bicycle kick in the 66th minute.
Arte Elegante of the Chilean V.143 were then dismissed 7-3, as
Chan Ze Han sounded his warning to Grilled's league opposition for the coming season, with four goals - if two from free-kicks. He would however be shut down by H.I. III.1 contestants flaminham international from Cambodia, who bunkered down following Julián Vijil's fourteenth minute penalty. Chan had a dead ball off the woodwork in the 22nd, and the Birds were floundering until
Orest Tokarz found the equalizer with a 68th minute chip over Pedro Gaspar Ferreira Pais.
Chad Thach then made the most of a moment of confusion in the opposition lines, to steal the win.
"It was a fine day out, of that there is no doubt." Birds defender
Aw Keng Chuan smiled, after the final game. "Perhaps we are not near the absolute top ranks of club sides yet, but as for the rest... I think we can certainly give any of them a real run for their money!"
Farmer Bunnies managed two wins, which left them in 15539th just missing out on a positive record, having garnered four wins and a draw. Purple-shirted German sixth divisioners SSV Bruchhausen 1921 left them plenty to think about in the opening 1-2 defeat, with Niels Bergholt tapping home a corner, and Fritz Klauber finding himself left totally alone in the box after 60 minutes.
Lim Guang Qiang executed a counterattacking move near-perfectly twelve minutes later, but the Buns had little else to show.
It got better with a 4-1 thrashing of Polish VI.419 representatives FC Vesper, who found themselves on the wrong end of a clinical
Vitaliy Efendiev early on. Efendiev's two goals were answered by a Antônio Giraldi single as he caught the Buns out at their own game, before late strikes by
Arun Ponnusamy and
Amirul Jufri Khairil.
Lau Keng Kwang and
Edgar Popienia then stood out with goals, as the Buns made the most of Ismael Pasten's 63rd minute dismissal, in a 2-1 over Hungarian V.48 side Liverpudli F.C..
Grilled International had two wins too to finish 13138th on five wins and five defeats, with their loss also coming earliest against Taiwanese H.A.L VI.50 favourites Kaohsiung Celtic. Italian forward Giorgio Maffettone was a hit once more as he gave the International defence fits in scoring twice, with
Shantinath Singh and a late bit of defiance by
Umut Koza keeping things interesting to the final whistle at least.
French VI.352 club Trucy 58 were then crushed 6-1, something they surely did not expect after Samir Jurayev struck the opener home in the fifth minute. An
Osertz Indurain hat-trick including two penalties and a free-kick boosted International, however. The final match against Bolivian III.4 outfit La Akade FC then had
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan strut his stuff with an intelligent double, with Indurain putting in International's last goal in a 6-3 result.
