(S)CHALKIDIKI Sliced
Romijn Unleashed
The Birds got off to a fine start in the fourth edition of The Global Trophy, seeing off Greek third division side FC (S)CHALKIDIKI 04 by four goals to one. It was much harder-fought than the final margin might suggest, however, and for long stretches in the first half, (S)CHALKIDIKI made a rather better claim to the points on offer.
And it wouldn't even have been an upset, given the personnel that marched out in their distinctive navy shirts blazoned with a white cross - Stefanos Megas, already on 111 goals at barely 27 years of age, was an innovative dynamo in the thick of their attack, and the remainder of Raúl Cenoz's team was decisively engineered towards two principles - pace out wide, and an absolute aerial dominance inside.
With most of the (S)CHALKIDIKI players easily over six feet tall, every cross was a serious threat that the Grilled team had to deal with pronto. Fortunately, they weren't totally scrubs in those departments either, with
Neeraj Muthyala and
Yuta Nakakita proving their worth in defending headers time and again.
Cyril Künzler and
Florus Romijn wouldn't be easily overrun either, and while (S)CHALKIDIKI grasped the initiative, they couldn't quite make it count.
The heavy pitch, thanks to an abrupt rainstorm in the morning, helped to slow the game down too. While that probably bought Grilled the minutes they needed to come to grips, it was also their downfall in the 34th minute, as
Mohammad Ramli Saliman lost possession trying to work his way out of a tight spot with his footwork. Giving Megas the ball near one's penalty area had never been a good idea, and he duly played Kostas Papaioannou with a defence-splitting ball, for the opener.
This spelt an almost instant improvement in the Birds, for some reason, and they enjoyed their best foray thus far on the restart, with
Kalki Parvathaneni seemingly tripped up by Dutch fullback Allesandro Swager, who was being skinned on the outside. Referee Artemus Harrison waved play on to Kalki's disbelief, but replays after the fact backed him up on there being minimal contact.
Grilled would pull level before half-time despite that, and it came as
Cyril Künzler gave Kiros Mpampoulas a taste of his own medicine, down the right. Having outdone the Pole in most of their sprinting duels before this, Kiros would finally get left behind as Künzler gave it his all, and although the cross wasn't one of his best, it was sufficient to allow
Yuta Nakakita to chip Rinos Meloyiannis handily.
The equaliser brought an outsized reaction from
Yuki Irie and the others in the dugout, and Grilled continued to improve as the game went on. (S)CHALKIDIKI remained hard to break down with Renos Loukakis providing a mobile shield from midfield, and
Djan Bacelar went for a different tack after a promising if unproductive first fifteen minutes, replacing a slightly-burnt-out seeming
Moey Xin Seng with
Islom Davlatov.
This happened to be just the shake-up the Birds needed, and no sooner had
Gene Filippone tugged on the captain's armband, than they went ahead. It was a classic winger's goal too, as
Florus Romijn glided in from the left side, having somehow persuaded all of the opposition players not to stay in his way. The angle certainly was tight, and Meloyiannis had his near post covered, but Romijn nonetheless managed to stick it into the roof of the net.
The wizardry was only beginning, and Romijn would rev up again, four minutes later.
Kalki Parvathaneni did most of the hard work this time, and was rearing up to test the goalkeeper with a shot, when he slipped on the wet grass. No problem, though, as the touch he got happened to poke it aside to the advancing Florus, who immediately sidefooted it in for 3-1.
(S)CHALKIDIKI were well and truly stunned now, with Loukakis making a bad decision for once, as he allowed
Mohammad Ramli Saliman to pass him unhindered on Grilled's next attack. That extra man pulled their defence across just enough for
Cyril Künzler to hit a curler coming back up along the boundary of the penalty area, and it eluded a despairing Meloyiannis, whose day had crashed down around him in just five minutes.
A three-goal cushion was likely more than Bacelar had dared hope for during the break, and with Parvathaneni displaying signs of exhaustion after near non-stop running, he felt it prudent to swap him for
Tian Yonghang, in the interests of stabilizing the game. This Tian did, though a couple of less-than-friendly incidents still occurred, that saw
Islom Davlatov and Fedon Dimakopoulos booked for Grilled and (S)CHALKIDIKI respectively.
A late, late drive saw Estonian forward Mart Künnapuu's so-so effort gathered up by
Valentin Batâr without undue ceremony, and
Prokop Mottl was happy to take his time coming on for performer of the day
Florus Romijn, as time added on beckoned.
