Not Enough Goals
Going Out Together
The Birds knew that they had to make up a -12 goal difference against IFK Chelmsford City before the start of today's final round in the ליגת האטריק tourney, and they would come within two goals of it against FC Camdonia. A miss is as good as a mile, though, and this will be the end of the line for both teams.
St Vincent & Grenadines III.3 side FC Camdonia had already been humbled 0-10 and 1-7 by Chelmsford and Rölanda BK, though Romanian teenager Marius-Dan Chipciu did make quite the splash with his bruising barely-legal dribble at Swedish international Matthias Kvarnhall in the latter match, that saw him bag a memorable goal. His day would end abruptly in the second half instead here, but the story should start from its beginning.
Chan, Mudaliar and Abd Hadi were exactly the ones you want to go to for running up the score, and with
Heng Dong Chu on the left, Grilled were clearly giving it about their all. FC Camdonia were not about to play nice, though, and their stated 3-4-3 formation would be something of a red herring, as they compressed into a solid mass of defenders readily enough when required - which was most of the time. This approach had its drawbacks, key amongst them the potential for contact in the box, and the Birds would convert two penalties through
Vikram Mudaliar by the 30th minute.
This represented a far slower scoring clip than Grilled needed, however, particularly with Chelmsford conceding just the one to Karl-Oskar Gerden in the other fixture, but at least the English Premier side weren't ahead.
Bilal Mohammad Harun picked up the pace with a strong header on
Salah Kamel's elegantly-drooping cross, and Heng got into the action with a mazy run in from out wide a minute later, only to have his finish stopped by Aleksander Bugzel's foot at the near post.
The corner would be cleared, Eduard Stloukal booked a bit later for a desperate push on Mudaliar, and
Moey Xin Seng then made it 4-0 from a flicked header by half-time... which was still not quite enough. The target would become seven more goals in the second half, which had to be a tall order given that FC Camdonia remained playing hard for pride.
Well, they didn't really have an answer to Mudaliar, who completed his hat-trick in the 53rd minute, before crashing another eye-opening effort off the woodwork two minutes on. The real drama would be taking place some forty yards away, however, with Marius-Dan Chipciu not amused by what he felt was
Douglas Carapaica's illegal climbing over him, to win their previous aerial challenge. This concluded with Chipciu butting his head into the Grilled man as he moved away, which had to be a straight sending-off.
Six more goals seemed at the very edge of plausibility with a man advantage, and
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud continued chipping away at the deficit, with a cool finish nutmegging Bugzel for Grilled's six.
Bilal Mohammad Harun had no luck with his long-range shot, sadly, and Bahktiar would bring Kalki's and Webb's fresh legs on, for the final twenty minutes. That would yield just the one more goal - in injury time from
Gilbert Webb - unfortunately, which meant that the Birds were out, after it finished only 0-3 to Rölanda BK in the other match.
