Schwalbe Deal Whupping
Donged By N'Diong
Grilled would tumble out of the Golden Trophy at the first knockout hurdle, with Eredivisie club Schwalbe S.V. leaving no doubt as to who were better-prepared. Long recognized as Groningen's premier team, they had French forward and captain Ndiogou N'Diong to do the heavy lifting with a hat-trick, against a Birds selection that knew no other way but to brawl it out.
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud would be left on the bench after a hectic first month with Grilled, as Bakhtiar tried
Douglas Carapaica alongside Panigrahi at the back. These were no ordinary opponents, however - former international van Vleuten aside, Van Gogh, Binnekamp and Zumbühl would probably start in the Birds' lineup, before getting into Schwalbe's world-class wingback pair of Nguyễn Phúc Anh and Johannes Kneidinger, and S$40 million former Kuwaiti national goalkeeper Hazaa’ Bin-Byait.
Little wonder that Bakhtiar made it clear that Grilled were the underdogs for this game, then, and it took but two minutes for Schwalbe to put truth behind the words. With 168 official career goals already, N'Diong's ability to stick it in the net is proven, and it owed much to him often able to read several steps ahead of any defenders. This happened as he sprinted inside concurrent with Binnekamp's hopeful forward pass, which would be the perfect setup for an assured finish.
The match would remain up in the air as
Kalki Parvathaneni did his usual thing to equalize in the seventeenth minute, but to more-frequent followers, the direction the game was taking was easy enough to ascertain. Schwalbe were simply creating more in attack and looking steadier in defence, and Nguyễn would nod it barely over from a corner, in the 20th. The referee had also spotted an off-the-ball infringement in the box, however, and the indirect free-kick would be backheeled out for Andriy Chemerys to pick his spot. That was a precise strike, for 2-1.
It all stalled for a while after that, as Bilal went into full destroyer mode in midfield; Schwalbe had just too many attacking outlets, however, with the indefatigable Nguyễn coming up the right flank all the way from defence, to deliver a low cross for N'Diong in the 38th.
Salah Kamel would work his way through to take the deficit back to a single goal within two minutes, but Van Gogh then painted his own way past Panigrahi right afterwards, making to 4-2 at half-time.
Hilal Bakhtiar didn't seem too disappointed as he patted his retreating players on the back, and his sole adjustment for the second half would be to put
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud on for Kamel, which brought a resounding response from the Grilled fans present. Even Abd Hadi was no miracle worker, however, and it was instead the Dutch side that went further ahead in the 50th minute. Binnekamp demonstrated incredible close control to elude both Abd Hadi and
Chu Xin Lee mobbing him, and former Italian youth international Demetrio Boeri waved for the assist, and got it.
That would be Boeri's final contribution to the match, as it happened, as he got himself sent off for an uncontrolled studs-up stamp on
Kalki Parvathaneni, right after
Teo Chuan Yong had grafted another goal back. That seemed mostly unintentional, but rules were rules, and it was indeed a red card by the book.
Thus, with thirty-five minutes remaining, Grilled Birds were two goals down, but a man up - not an entirely hopeless situation, to the more-optimistic. That appeared possible for a while as the Birds began ball-hogging with Schwalbe opting to play it safe, but they were sunk after a great Bin-Byait save off Chu's 76th minute shot, was turned into a counter down the left by Knallkööm's magical first touch. That took Teo completely out of the equation, and Van Gogh was waiting to get on the end of the cross, which he did.
There would be another counter as Kalki hit his right to the goalie too, and with
Gilbert Webb not in a hurry to come in for Douglas, N'Diong would complete his hat-trick after taking it past the Panamanian.
