Mammu Throttling
Martin Misery
The Grilled reserves lost 1-5 in Germany, but for once the one-sidedness was not indicative of the happenings on the pitch; even the notably pessimistic message board denizens were agreed that a draw would have been a far fairer result after watching snippets of the friendly online.
Division Seven side 1.FC Mammutring managed to draw a little over 5000 onlookers to the practice game, and went with an uncommon 2-5-3 formation, with three up front. Grilled did the same, with teenagers Mohd Safri, Salieri and Feng Lihai starting, but to less effect.
Boasting Branbilla and MacKinnon in the middle, Grilled operated at a parity with the home side in the opening exchanges, though the tricky adolescent legs of Turkish playmaker Saduman Şahin regularly proved too much for them to handle. The first goal could however be wholly attributed to one Absalom El-Ashraf, who sped in past
Li Shunguo to score with a glorious lob.
Grilled were not too perplexed by that, but soon went another two goals behind, perhaps undeservedly. Local darling Rüdiger Hatten was the culprit, as the creative centre forward fooled Grilled's centreback with his deceptive speed on the turn to break through in the 23rd, then added a more typical scorcher three minutes later.
Mammutring made a tactical substitution on the half-hour mark, swopping Wolf-Birger Stroh for the much younger Miron Mantarinidis, but Stroh's experience was sorely missed when Grilled were awarded a free-kick. Defensive organization was sorely lacking as MacKinnon curled the ball smack into the box, and after some ugly scenes, Salieri managed to bundle the ball over the line, himself falling in after it.
The hosts quickly restored their advantage, as Grilled's makeshift backline, including nominal striker Mohd Firdaus, messed up royally in dealing with a lukewarm attack. The defence should not have converged on a single player in the first place, and had no need to bring Hurna down in the second. As it was, a penalty was rightly given, and defender Horst Binert scuffed it past Bao-Tam.
The match then proceeded with a friendly-type flavour, as both teams made several changes after the break, with Mammutring going 5-1 ahead through Matthias Raidl. Mohd Safri was slightly disappointing, managing to convert neither of the gilt-edged chances he got, although he merited some praise for managing to create them in the first place.
Grilled's substitutes
Martin Torsson and
Ângelo Cunha Simões were positively raring to go after getting sent on with sixty minutes played, but got poor service as their midfield began to tire. Branbilla in particular felt the effects of playing a string of matches without rest, and also the soaring heat.
All Grilled had to show for the last third of the match was the loss of Torrson to injury, in a near-absurd accident that saw the overeager Swede attacker crash into an advertising board, then land on his head. He was at least conscious when the paramedics removed him from the disaster area.
