Polisportiva Polishing
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Grilled set up a rare home friendly at The Cooking Pot with Liehner wishing to have as much time available as possible to drill his squad. The reserve team that he picked was plenty strong enough to maul Italian Division Ten visitors Polisportiva Ciaccolata, but Polisportiva made an impression with their eye-catching red-and-blue checked jerseys at least.
This was always going to be a learning experience as Polisportiva stuck three teenagers in midfield, and none of them had an answer to the seasoned Branbilla, who is still in the process of gelling with the Grilled team. They held their own for twenty minutes, but once Branbilla hit a booming free-kick past trainer-goalie Carmine Matteuzzi it became a rout.
Matteuzzi didn't even dive as Branbilla slotted a penalty kick past him, given rather cheaply for a bump on Hjortlind.
Weng Seng-Huat, who was trying his hand in central midfield, was clearly enjoying his advanced role as he waltzed through the middle and found the net with a well-placed stroke.
Branbilla made it a hat-trick as the Polisportiva defence could find no way to stop his steady march down the middle, and Mirchev got the fifth before half-time through a smart Chowdhury cut-back. Transfer-listed opposition forward Pantaleo Bibo tried to raise his stock with aggressive shadowing, but overdid it with an ill-advised kick to Deme's shin that brought him a caution.
Chowdhury nutmegged Matteuzzi to score in the 56th minute to the delight of the home fans, but Polisportiva began to settle into a solid defensive system, and it looked as if no further goals would be forthcoming. They had a half-chance after
Zoltán Árva cut down one of their strikers not too far from Bao-Tam's goal, but Spanish defender Fávila Maristany didn't hit the target from the free-kick.
There was to be no consolation goal as right winger Claudio Grassia took full advantage of Penati's unwillingness to track back, but he was inconvenienced sufficiently by Sandor Deme to give Bao-Tam an easy save. This was after Branbilla should have gotten a fourth for himself, but saw his lob come back off the crossbar.
No matter, as the last five minutes saw Chowdhury, Hjortlind and Mohd Firdaus grab late goals, with the visitors taking their foot off the pedal. Veteran Finnish centreback Jukka Vainio was less willing to wind down his game, but could do little other than settle for a yellow card after manhandling any Grilled player who happened to drift close by.
There was some concern when their forward Antonio Farnocchia tumbled to the ground right after the referee blew for full-time, but it turned out that he was just hit by an onset of cramp, to the relief of all.
