Habo Hiding
Can't Get Worse
The freshly-relegated Grilled should not have bothered to turn up for their friendly with French Division Six club habouteam, so low were the spirits in their camp; The reserves looked as if they were playing with boots of lead, and it was a wonder that the visitors didn't knock more than ten past them.
Playing in fetching green-and-yellow diagonal stripes, the French visitors were in no mood to indulge their dispirited hosts, and young German midfielder Norbert Kohlers gave no quarter as he cleft a mighty right-footed effort into the roof of the net in the fourth minute.
Grilled held the line for about half an hour, before Huihong made one of his habitual mistakes and showed Kent Hansson too much of the inside, allowing the Swede to simply pass the ball into goal. Kohlers and Hansson would complete first-half braces, with Dennis Soto and Erik-Jan Tinbergen also getting on the scoresheet.
Phua Siong An was the only Grilled player to show some endeavour on the pitch, but he was badly limited by the heavy pitch. He did however rattle Karl-Hermann Stoyhe to the extent that the wingback refused to allow him to take a quick free-kick, costing Stoyhe a yellow card for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
habouteam's young starlet Nicolas Barbat then came into his own in the second half, as he scored a perfect hat-trick, first leaping to head it in in the 47th minute, then getting it through with his weaker left foot in the 53rd, and finally screaming the third in with his right in the 72nd.
It was unfortunately not flawless, as teammate Tinbergen got his second of the game in between, but it was certainly the highlight of a half in which the only other noteworthy event was Oscar Andaur ripping Chuancheng's shirt. Phua didn't let up either, but only received a caution for his pains when he tried, very unconvincingly, to win the Birds a penalty.
