Thor Tattered
Super Subri
The Birds followed on last Sunday's quality show against the Penguins, steamrolling league leaders Thorocozzieq FC 6-0 in front of their delirious fans. Though Grilled had claimed a couple of 9-0 whitewashes recently, those freak results were against severely weakened sides, and not a near full-strength combat-ready outfit.
Grilled's support was not overly confident despite a stalwart tally of 22 goals scored and just 3 conceded in their last three home matches, and they had good reason to be reserved as Thorocozzieq were fastest off the blocks.
Nawaz Talib could barely cope with their intelligent interchanging of positions, and ate a yellow card bringing down Mohd Zaharul Aiman in the fourth minute. The free kick was taken without delay, leaving Alexander Herzig free to curl a grounder just wide of the post.
The Birds' defence survived thanks to their energy, but the same could not be said for the visitors. Having been insulated from the game by their attacking efforts, the Thorocozzieq backline was manifestly unprepared to see Subri charging towards them like a man possessed in the ninth minute. Pessina and Blanco thought that they had neutralised his run by herding him off to the side, but the angle was still good enough for the Malaysian forward to put the ball past Thorocozzieq's Austrian goalie at his far post.
Friedrich Brehm could have been held accountable for that goal, but his defence was fully to blame for Subri's next act. Again reluctant to close him down, the backline inexplicably stood off and dared him to shoot. Subri did just that after poking the ball rightwards to open further space, and cracked in his ideal strike that simply zoomed beyond Brehm before he could move a muscle.
Being two goals down by the fourteenth minute was a rare experience for the high-flying Thorocozzieq, and they seemed at a loss as to how to respond. After an insipid attempt at retaining possession to calm the tempo, an injury-hampered Carlos Ottero found himself cornered by the pairing of MacKinnon and Han Kok. Han Kok wasted no time in making straight for the goal, and shaped to shoot before rolling the ball on for Spirig to do the honours coming in from a wide position.
By now, it was clear that the visitor's confidence was shot, and that they were extremely uncomfortable being run at. Sensing that, Liehner gestured for his players to go at them whenever they could, and
Zoltán Árva took up the call. The defender didn't look quite convincing as he kicked and chased the ball by way of dribbling, but even that was enough to get by Blanco, who didn't know whether to cover or tackle. Árva's attempted cross then found the top corner beautifully, causing a few Thorocozzieq players to shake their heads in disgust.
Laughably, Thorocozzieq had actually looked the more composed side when they had the ball throughout the first forty-five minutes, but were badly let down by their defence. Four-nil is a huge hole to come back from, especially as the Birds' loyalists worked themselves into a frenzy in the stands. The cheers got even louder as Rotteveel beat his man from a standing start and dinked the ball on to Subri, who unerringly sidefooted wide of a rushing Brehm. 5-0.
Grilled began playing some vintage footie, but never lost their steel as
Quah Han Kok demonstrated with an uncompromising sliding tackle on veteran playmaker Mohd Atiq bin Ali. The 35 year-old had to go off for young hopeful Othman bin Abu, who stemmed the bleeding with his willingness to harry.
Though the match was surely beyond them, Thorocozzieq nearly bagged a consolation when Francisco Blanco hit a tremendous free-kick right to Valdir's near top corner. The ex Brazilian U-20 custodian was nearly taken aback, but came to his senses in time to stick out a strong left arm and ward it off for a corner. He was seen holding his wrist gingerly after that block, though.
With the focus being on breaking the opposition down through the middle,
Ciro Penati didn't have much chance to shine, until the 61st minute when Spirig finally spread the ball his way. Penati released all his pent-up running with a sprint down the sidelines, and released a delightful cross that Han Kok climbed highest to flick home with his head. Grilled then stepped down a few gears for the remaining half-hour, but surely none of the fans begrudged them that.
