Tecen Down
Safrinho Sees Red
SportTec became the first Romanian club to take Grilled on at The Cooking Pot, and came away with the win after three goals in the last ten minutes. Grilled's up-and-coming forward
Safri bin Mohamad, better known as Safrinho, was an integral force for the Birds, until his 79th minute dismissal for a questionable challenge.
Before the match began, all eyes were on
Fan Xiuyu, who had made a bang with his entrance against seluraralc just three days ago. The friendly was seen as an opportunity to evaluate Fan one more time, and he didn't disappoint by getting stuck in right from the kickoff.
SportTec would get off to a flyer despite Grilled's efforts, however, as the ease with which he was turned indicated to
Han Lik-Tsun that his best days were well and behind him. Secăreanu didn't take the shot on as Olsson rushed to block, placing it for strike partner Cătălin Savu to lash in from the left.
The visitors were not in a hurry to extend their lead, and fell back to take the measure of their hosts. It wasn't a wise move against three forwards eager to make a name for themselves, though, and young centreback Ioan-Alexandru Mircea soon found himself hemmed in by Tian and Fan. On the verge of losing the ball, Mircea retained enough presence of mind to collapse on the ball and give up a free-kick instead.
Tian rather unbecomingly argued for Mircea to be booked, to no avail, but Grilled would get their own back as the free-kick was intelligently passed wide to Safrinho, who nimbly skipped a defender's hesitant challenge before tucking the ball past Niculae Drăghici.
That was about it for the half, and the break saw
Kyou-Chull Kim replaced by
Edvaldo Mourão, who also took up the responsibility of being team captain. Fan then had a chance to etch himself deeply into the supporters' memories when he received the ball on the edge of the six-yard box, but his laudable first touch was wasted, as he lamely tapped the ball towards the goalkeeper.
SportTec then made their move as Grilled's collection of youngsters and oldies began to tire, and Safrinho received a yellow card after contesting a corner kick that he felt should have been given. Probably figuring that
Chow Ying Lee could use more conditioning, Han motioned for the forward to come on in the 75th minute for Fan, the inverse of the substitution that had taken place on Sunday.
The change however proved far less than ideal for Grilled as Chow never quite got into the match, and it was left to SportTec's Swiss midfielder, Stéphane Marguerite, to take the game by the scruff of its neck. Sensing that the Grilled defence was badly overloaded, Marguerite ran directly at goal after setting up a simple one-two, and Silvera couldn't quite handle his jackhammer of a strike.
It then went all bottoms-up for Grilled, as losing the ball caused Safrinho to launch himself into a reckless challenge on Wientapper, that the SportTec defender barely avoided. There was no way that Safrinho could remain on the field after that, and he had not yet made it into the tunnel when 18 year-old winger Horea Brezoi came inside to make it 1-3.
The ten men of Grilled had enough on their hands without thinking of going on the offensive, and SportTec took full advantage of their numerical superiority to produce a fourth goal, again through Brezoi. Mourão would reduce the deficit with a fine header off a bin Yaacob cross, before Josefsson got the third yellow card of the night for a sly trip.
