Voilà Viola
Silvera Stretchered Off
Italian Division Six side Viola City thrashed Grilled's second XI at their Olympia Stadium, with
Tian Yonghang lasting the full ninety minutes in a less than enjoyable senior debut.
The Birds had reshuffled their formation slightly, as Mirchev moved back up to midfield, and Torsson moved to central attack. The match kicked off with an extremely bizarre substitution, after young midfield signing Sergio Favasuli drew an excellent save from Silvera. Despite no apparent injury or incident, a puzzled-looking fourth official was told to signal for an equally bemused Favasuli to come off in the third minute for the veteran Ciro Cataldo.
Viola certainly looked strengthened by that move, and Grilled slowly fell behind the pace. Badrul was hustled off the ball by Adrián Molina when he should have just lumped it out, and it was only Volker Geihofer's haste that kept the home team from going one up.
They didn't have long to wait, as Czech signing Jaroslav Pacík, making his debut for Viola, electrified the crowd with a visionary lob over Silvera that reeked of future promise. The Peruvian goalkeeper was for once hardly to blame, and he garnered additional sympathy when he roughed up his ankle sliding in to clear the ball in the 31st minute.
Lim Shun Jin had to pull on his gloves again, and despite a battling performance by
Lee Han Lai in the wet conditions, Viola entered a purple patch and put three past the newbie goalkeeper in five minutes. Giovanbattista Mutti, Volker Geihofer and Thorben Block were the scorers, as the Grilled defence went missing for that period.
Half-time saw a couple of tactical changes, as Torsson was replaced by Simões, and 38 year-old Swedish defender Bengt-Arne Stridborn, criminally untested in the first half, departed for another 38 year-old oldie, Mattias Ranbo.
The hosts let up after Giuliano Frizzi sent an incisive drive between Shun Jin's legs for 5-0, and Mohd Firdaus restored some pride for the Birds when his training as a forward came to the fore in the 74th minute; he might have been better advised to pass after the ball came to him just outside the box, but didn't think twice before hitting it towards - and into - the bottom left corner of goal.
Zheng Lihai got a brief outing, with Safrinho cutting a glum figure as he trudged off in the 82nd minute. Viola then wrapped up their victory as Daniel Nirschl positioned himself well to take a sixth goal, and gave captain Marek Timm some additional rest by taking him off for Patrick Toyfl.
