Enkel Too Kind
Mudaliar Takes Over
Grilled did what they had to to advance in the Cup der Legenden, as they rallied to comprehensively defeat German Division Five side Widukinds Enkel. Widukinds were foreboding in their striking home kit of black with yellow diamonds, but they arguably tried to rest on theur laurels far too early.
Widukinds' head coach Fredemar Haueslmeier had been notoriously versatile with his tactics, and while his 5-5-0 didn't manage to pull out a draw against VSV Hinten Dicht, he would maintain its spirit with a 5-3-2 selection against the Birds. Want-away playmaker Sven-Carsten Proen was asked to do the best he could, alone in the middle, as the team tried to seek out the nippy Marco Jovanovich and André Godói Silva with long passes on the counter.
It wasn't anything that Grilled were unused to, but despite that, they nonetheless fell for it after an encouraging first twenty minutes.
Gilbert Webb had barrelled up boldly in support of
Islom Davlatov's run, only for play to suddenly be reversed;
Yuta Nakakita was left with no good choices as the opponents broke in force, and although
Bilal Mohammad Harun managed to attach himself to Silva, that left former Faroese youth international James Hacken to bust through - and score.
The Widukinds players piled themselves onto Hacken, as
Chan Ze Han stewed, and the Grilled forward would give them a piece of his mind with a torrid run when he next got the ball, one that would only be stopped by Philipp Padelügge's inch-perfect slide in from behind. Widukinds would quickly realize that any thoughts of having sewn it up were premature, as Bilal came up tops with a headed goal off Künzler's cross on the half-hour. Davlatov then fired at Galvarino Enríquez from the corner of the six-yard box, who would probably not have gotten to it otherwise.
A draw was however not going to be good enough for the Birds, as everybody concerned well knew, and Widukinds Enkel would keep their focus on the job after a needed rest. Indeed, their forwards would fall back to help Proen out more often than not, and would have to be constantly reminded by Haueslmeier on the sidelines to strech Grilled a little.
The primary direction of the game was not under dispute, though, and Grilled were finding excellent opportunities down their right wing, with Hacken proving more impressive on the attack than in defence. Magnus Klencke was left behind to confront Künzler, a job that the lanky Klencke was hardly suited to, and
Vikram Mudaliar would reach another of Künzler's crosses ahead of all, to make it 2-1.
Widukinds were reeling, and
Chan Ze Han wasn't about to be a gentleman and allow them to recover. It wasn't as if Chan had it easy when Davlatov tapped it on for him either, but his accuracy was unerring, as he swung it off the corner of post and bar, as his markers stood flabbergasted. That really brought the small travelling contingent to their feet!
As if Widukinds hadn't suffered enough, Proen would then be booked for his late biting challenge on
Islom Davlatov on that assist; had
Bernie Egan not been around to restrain Davlatov, he might have gotten into trouble for retaliating too. Grilled would have no reason to mull over that anyway, with them soon being 4-1 up, after national striker
Vikram Mudaliar dug a second goal out, with the outside of his boot.
With hope running out, Padelügge went on a stormer in the 74th minute, and he could have spiced things up, had his eventual shot been a bit to the left. It wasn't to be, and Noubaryan would while away valuable seconds towards the end, by having
Neeraj Muthyala come on for Davlatov.
