Vaca Outraged
Simon Sent Off
Grilled ended the game with ten men against Moldova's ex-Futtrimmi Cup finalists Vaca Rage, but left Mugetul Arena 3-1 winners, in the process setting several performance benchmarks for this season's edition of the international competition.
Vaca Rage arrayed themselves in an offensive 3-4-3 in front of almost ten thousand watchers, which deceptively hid their true strength, which was in defence - Sweeper-captain Adolfo Avangour was the star of a renowned backline incorporating Colombian goalie Humberto Quiroga behind the Brazilian Avangour, Australian Jacob Helo and Swede Stefan Thyner.
Eager to get their Futturimi Cup campaign off to a good start, Vaca Rage tried a few incursions into Grilled's penalty area, but found Grilled's entire first-team backline ready and waiting, a sight that they were likely unaccustomed to. Grilled were not content with sitting back either, but Ødegaard was a little hasty in getting forward and ended up chopping Helo down crudely, to the jeers of the crowd and a caution by the referee.
Sid entertained with a scary twenty-five metre effort after Spirig teed up an indirect free kick for him, and it looked good value for a goal before Quiroga lived up to his reputation by saving with a fingertip. Vaca Rage nearly got to the half on level terms, but were broken by Paullin's speculative effort that went through a defender's legs. A second quickly followed, as
Bukhari Abd Hamid was fed beautifully by van Liere at the far post.
Vaca Rage weren't taking things too lightly, and were further incensed by Simon's untidy challenge on the unfortunate Helo a minute later. They came out of the tunnel thoroughly psyched up for the second forty-five minutes, and their frontman Apostel went in hard on Sid in a repeat of the Simon incident, when the game had barely resumed. It may have been interpretated as retaliation, but the referee wisely displayed only the yellow, preventing things getting out of hand.
Ødegaard knocked in a third for Grilled to more or less seal the match, and to their credit Vaca Rage continued their siege on Grilled's goal even when faced with such a daunting task. Simon's dismissal for dragging back vangour while striving to get a free run on goal allowed them to push further up, but Grilled just about coped with it.
The continuous bumping, combined with the hard first half knock, finally took its toll on Jacob Helo, and he eventually had to be signal to be substituted. The Mexican Francisco Río came in for him and injected some pace down the right, which led to their captain bundling in a hard-earned consolation goal at the end.
