Bethlehem Bounced
Saliman Conception
Grilled Birds began their Mönninghof Cup campaign with a worthy 5-3 victory over Swiss Division Six club Bethlehem Kickers, with
Mohammad Ramli Saliman re-establishing himself as a credible control tower for the Birds. Bethlehem however did well considering they had to start without key Spanish forward Carlos Mañero, and even reserved a small scare towards the end.
Portuguese playmaker Pedro Mariano Martins Filipe tried to compensate for their needs, but the Birds made the most of their unearned numerical advantage. Even a well-organized defence could only do so much under constant pressure, and Zoltán Vessző would rue stepping up too early in the 21st minute, to play Saliman on; despite reacting quickly, that was enough time for Grilled's Number 25 to arrow the ball past Xavi Mateu.
Kalki Parvathaneni doubled Grilled's lead barely two minutes later, after
Yuki Irie's powerful header from a corner was blocked superbly by the harried Mateu, but not far enough. The Bethlehem backline stood firm against the following onslaught, but the final rebound would fall to Parvathaneni, who knew exactly what he had to do.
It was all coming together for the Birds now, as they had nearly free rein outside Bethlehem's penalty area.
Moey Xin Seng would catch
Chan Ze Han making an inviting sprint inside several minutes later, and although French fullback Arnaud Stephant was onto Chan in an instant, tight spaces were just what he was used to. Wriggling around the defender with some devilish footwork, Chan then buried it simply with the inside of his boot.
Mohammad Ramli Saliman, who had been quietly doing much of the background grunt work, would be booked for a safety-first tackle on Harald Wolf, before
Florus Romijn tested Mateu to his limits with a hand-stinging cannon at full speed. Mateu wouldn't come out ahead when Romijn knocked again, though, with the Belgian finding precision preferable to pure power then. Four-nil.
There was little question that Grilled were on top for the first half, and despite some instigation to bravery by Pedro Mariano Martins Filipe, nothing suggested that the second would be any different. 56 minutes in, Parvathaneni got onto the return of a creative one-two with Chan, only to curl his finish onto the goalpost.
Neeraj Muthyala was replaced by
Chu Xin Lee on the hour mark, and although due to no fault of Chu on his own, Bethlehem found themselves with the best opportunity they have had thus far. The restart found player-coach Qu Ruohan stripping a careless Romijn down the right flank, and before Grilled had figured out what was going on, Zein Salah Eddin had carried the ball into the six-yard box to score.
Then again, it didn't look much more than a consolation goal, as Grilled went right back to threatening the opposition goal.
Islom Davlatov fired marginally high after an aggressive dribble cutting in from the left, and after
Hoàng Trung Quá came in for
Yuki Irie,
Kalki Parvathaneni waltzed in calmly past the flatfooted Vessző to make it 5-1.
Bethlehem took their latest setback in stride, and wound up being the ones to emerge the stronger. Greek midfielder Dantis Droussiotis hadn't had much leeway to attack before this, but with
Mohammad Ramli Saliman dialing it back a notch, he would find it clear going from the half-way line, right to the edge of the Grilled box. Faking a strike, Droussiotis instead found Qu to his right, who in turn neatly chipped the trapped
Valentin Batâr.
Wolf would then raise Bethlehem spirits further, as his unceasing effort paid off handsomely in the 76th minute. With Hoàng playing it safe by putting a wild cross behind for a corner, Zein Salah Eddin would confront a well-populated penalty area, and nobody had the presence of mind to pick Wolf's run out to meet the ball. Despite his momentum taking him the wrong way, he still managed a technically-challenging header to the unguarded side of goal.
Of course, it wasn't quite enough to raise fears of a true comeback, and Parvathaneni almost found his hat-trick with a praiseworthy snipe in the 79th into the bargain.
Iman Eshrafi entered for
Chan Ze Han for the last ten minutes, which brought no further shots on target.
