Xata Comfort
Gorgal Gets One
It was all Grilled could do to arrange a friendly at short notice after the team's unexpected third round Singapore Cup defeat, with Spanish Division Ten side Or Xata the opponents. Strangely enough, Grilled have not yet flown to one of the largest Hattrick nations in their history, thus the trip down corrected that oversight.
The players looked like they would much rather have stayed in Singapore at this stage of the season, but reality is sometimes cruel, though a cool, windy day in Valencia wasn't exactly the worst they could have faced. Xata's Italian winger Paolo Resnati was a firebrand in the early part of the match, but his ardour was dampened when he was nearly sent off after catching Bona's ankle with an incredibly late tackle.
Xata pressed their early momentum with concerted drives down the middle, where Seng-Huat wilted under their uncompromising harassment. He blindly spread the ball out without looking if Alcántara was in a position to take it, and it was duly intercepted by Xata's left winger. Sulaiman had to scramble out of his box to clear awkwardly for a corner.
Hjortlind got a break in the 20th minute when Xata's Guillem Suárez leaned too far to one side, making it easy for the Swedish striker to breeze past him and bury a grounder into Argüeso's net. Grilled followed up with a exceedingly powerful right-footer by Bona and some cheeky trickery by Alcántara to take them three-up before the 25th minute.
The second half was marked by an impressive attempt by Hjortlind some thirty metres out, which would have gone in had it been several metres to the left. Xata were lauded by their fans when central defender Beltrán Gorgal took out Seng-Huat with a deft first touch, bringing the ball to one side of the confused defender while running past him on the other side; The finish past Sulaiman was just as stylishly done.
Grilled restored their advantage after Bukhari sent fellow youngster Swee Pheng through with a slide-rule pass, but Xata's Italian teenager Angelo Fiumara should really have brought the margin back down to two when Bona was clueless after a throw out to him by Sulaiman. Fiumara didn't even get his effort on target from five metres, though, which might have been understandable given the intimidating mood Sulaiman was in at that moment.
