Žmonės Tutoring
Kalki Regret
The Birds suffered their first defeat for the season - albeit in a non-official tournament match - against reigning Lithuanian A Lyga champions Miško Žmonės, but the fact that Grilled essentially played the entire match with ten men should offer a plausible excuse. Truth be told, Grilled performed well considering that, and they had several goes at equalizing midway into the second half.
Of course, Grilled had just trained with Farmer Bunnies too, and if supporters wondered whether this sort of schedule was too much to ask of the players, they would soon have an answer - not really. Or that was how it seemed as the Birds went full tilt immediately, leaving Miško Žmonės no time to take stock. Toralf Fallund should really have held his throw up a while longer for everyone to regroup, but his attempt to send it long to Alan Breemer was anticipated, and an on-form
Yuta Nakakita opened on the ensuing attack in the third minute.
This was, by the way, an extremely strong XI that had won Lithuania's national cup and league in successive seasons; new player-coach Girolamo Di Campli had inherited a squad that mixed a solid domestic core with international names such as Bennie Zeelen, William Karlinger and Ali Shoshra, and while some might argue that their best years were behind them, their record had proven that they weren't far off their peak, if at all. To have Di Campli picking the ball out of his net so quickly, then, had to be an accomplishment.
That however didn't warrant giving them any further handicaps, which was what the Birds wound up doing. No-one quite knew what was going through
Kalki Parvathaneni's mind, when he went straight through Shoshra as the defender was tied up with
Vikram Mudaliar, leaving him rolling in agony on the grass. This was a red card if there ever was one, and Kalki must have realised it too, as he retreated down the tunnel with his head bowed.
Miško Žmonės wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, and Di Campli wasted no time in making his adjustments. Finnish centreback Joel Haukkasalo would be delegated as
Chan Ze Han's personal marker, which left Chan the least effective he had been this season, by far. Being a man up also gave them much more space to work with in midfield, especially for Toralf Fallund with Grilled still figuring out how to fill their left flank in, with Kalki's loss. Fallund had all the time he needed to put a cross in several minutes after Yuta's goal, and former Dutch national striker Bennie Zeelen outdueled
Bhavya Panigrahi in the air, to level up.
Grilled were in real trouble, as Miško Žmonės began exhibiting the fluid total football-like philosophy that had seem them so hard to pin down, as exemplified by Haukkasalo here. Despite clearly having being detailed to mark
Chan Ze Han down, he knew exactly when to leave that duty to someone else, as he trailed William Karlinger in a raid down the left. This allowed him a simple finish, in the 17th minute. Haukkasalo was soon back in the thick of defence too, and he would be cautioned for forcibly arresting Chan some four minutes later.
Bilal Mohammad Harun, rightly confident about his marksmanship after his exploits against the Buns yesterday, unleashed a rocket on the turn in the 27th minute. His mastery of the angle was near-perfect, as the dipping strike left Di Campli totally stranded... only to ricochet off the upright. A bit later, it was the opposition's turn to try and extend their lead, and Jeroslavas Kilikauskas would wind up being denied in the same manner.
Hovaness Noubaryan's hands were tied tactically, as Grilled came out for the second half in the same formation, if with
Moey Xin Seng and
Neeraj Muthyala trying to make up for the missing man on the left. They didn't fare too badly, actually, as the Birds remained largely competitive. In fact, they were the ones pressing the pace after
Gilbert Webb replaced
Yuta Nakakita on the hour mark, with
Cyril Künzler's effort having to be blocked on the line in the 61st minute. Webb would join in the fun, but he would hold the ball up for far too long, after making a grand advance in the 67th.
The Birds could hardly afford giving up on such opportunities, as their man disadvantage eventually took its toll. Künzler for one was clearly spent by the time he was taken off for
Heng Dong Chu with ten minutes left, as Grilled simply couldn't summon enough reserves to seriously trouble Miško Žmonės.
José Luiz Velho would be given a run-out for
Bernie Egan as the final whistle neared, but only in time to watch as Zeelan padded their winning margin with an excellent running strike.
