Beyond Our Ken
Mordant Mopping
Grilled battled to an entertaining 2-3 defeat to Belgian Division Six side kenshuteam, who became the first side from their country to play the Birds at The Cooking Pot. The visitors set up stall with a very conservative 5-3-2, daring Grilled to make the first moves.
To be honest, Grilled were not prepared for that, and appeared slightly clueless as they passed the ball about in midfield.
Michele Salieri got bored of that and decided to make things happen on his own, and executed a rapid spin that had the visitors' rightback Charles-Alexandre Devos reflexively dragging him down.
Chan Woon Jin disappointed as he hefted the free-kick up and away, but Grilled would take the lead two minutes later as Lihai and Torsson showed signs of building an understanding. The Taiwanese couldn't have known that Torsson was cutting to the side, but nevertheless placed a perfect backheel that caught the defence out.
Such teamwork was not limited to Grilled, and kenshuteam's Vlado Bulíř displayed similar telepathy with the Dutch Kor Eijmael on the other flank. As players flooded into the penalty area, Bulíř instead skirted around it and arrived at its head just as Eijmael pulled the ball to that spot. His subsequent finish was too good for Bao-Tam to get on to.
That goal might well be the last the 45 year-old will concede in his long career, as Bulíř turned villian in the 19th minute as he failed to pull out of a slide on the goalie. His studs went crunching into both the ball and Bao-Tam's chest, which left Bao-Tam in agony and got another veteran in
Cheung Huel-sheng off the bench.
Mirchev had his head in his hands after Jun Chang served the ball up to him on the plate in the 50th minute, only for him to hit the bar from close range. kenshuteam's Milojko Keković had no such issues, as he flipped a firm cross from Bulíř past Huel-sheng unopposed, thanks to a clever dummy sold by Coimbra.
Lihai again went off for Simões, and the Portugeuse forward's fresh legs told as he snapped up a loose ball and fed it wide to
Feng Darong, who has not been the happiest of figures after being dropped for the previous two league matches. His well-taken goal might persuade Lik-Tsun to correct that oversight.
It was not Mirchev's day as he struck a couple of tame shots into Irishman Charles Higgins' arms from decent positions, and lanky defender Davy Mordant won it for his team after he came up for a cross from Eijmael.
