Hayes Fever
B&B Wakeup
A strong start would peter out against two-time Paraguay national champions Club Presidente Hayes, who have like the Birds successfully defended both that and their national cup. While their greatest glories are some distance in the past, young Italian head coach Sabio Sturlini has been keeping them in the second division, although another rebuild may soon be due. In any case, it would remain well sufficient to whip this Birds team.
Another reshuffle would see
Enrique Baena and
Chad Thach on the flanks, with
Moey Xin Seng falling back into midfield as enforcer supporting Bilal and Teo - a role in which it would soon be revealed, that he no longer had the legs for. Ricardo Disorna and Inocencio González Macchi, while not much younger, would too easily give him the runaround. However, it would be on the wings that this match was truly lost.
All this would not be evident for some time, as Grilled Birds attacked optimistically for the first ten minutes, even if
Chan Ze Han's opener had the whiff of fortune about it. Truly, Kyrgyzstani sweeper Baabek Saliev should have cut Teo's rather-obvious through ball effort out, but he somehow allowed it through, and Chan was not about to let that go. Still, Hayes' veteran forward Matei Petrule would find himself entirely unmarked too at the other end on their response, but he whacked it off the bar to
Dimitris Germanakos' relief.
The Birds' high spirits would not be maintained for much longer as Hayes got serious, and two minutes after
José Luiz Velho got hauled up for a hopeless challenger from behind on Markus Hasler, Polish right winger Benon Kapturski would equalize by slotting in promptly as Thiseas Dimitrakopoulos brought the ball up. The Greek striker would then finish it himself in the 21st minute, through there would be a cordial exchange of words with Germanakos, as the two made to retrieve the ball from the net.
Moey would make some adjustments to his play, stabilizing the game to half-time, but it would be clear that his reserves of stamina had become greatly diminished. This might not have been as much of an issue had he only to hang up top as a forward, but chasing opponents all day had to be beyond him now. It would be 3-1 four minutes after the break, as Saliev demonstrated a wicked right boot, after pushing fifty yards up in support.
Grilled then had a fairly decent period of their own for the next twenty minutes or so, as they got a few things going, with Baena finally also putting a few successful runs in off Brian Carstensen. A free-kick would be floated in hopefully by
Bhavya Panigrahi in the 58th, but Hayes had the bodies behind it.
José Luiz Velho would then receive it with back to goal - but only eight yards out - after 69 minutes, but would again be simply crowded out.
That would see
Aw Keng Chuan - who had been steadily improving after some initial hesitancy - leave for
Gilbert Webb, which would on hindsight be a mistake. All of the Scotsman's considerable experience would not help him get up to speed in time, and Saliev would grab another mere minutes after his arrival, after he was left unattended as Carstensen's cross came in from the left.
Chad Thach would be next in the referee's book as he had to resort to constant fouling to keep Kapturski under control, as Grilled had to accept that turning this around was beyond them. Dimitrakopoulos and Kapturski would wind up scoring too, to lend a wonderful symmetry to the scoreline.
