Wolfes Almost At Bay
Safrinho Shines
Grilled held reigning Yemeni national champions Angry Wolfes to a 2-2 draw at the end of regular time at Wolves Chamber before succumbing in the 20th minute of extra time, as budding speedster
Safri bin Mohamad played a huge role in the match. Safrinho levelled twice as the Birds came back from a goal down each time, with the reserve side pleasingly displaying the spine that had deserted them in recent seasons.
The friendly was a long time in the making, since the just 26 official club sides in Yemen were rightly in high demand as opponents. Grilled fielded a fairly decent 3-4-3 that included Lik-Tsun and Han Kok, which faced a Wolfes XI in a defensive 5-4-1.
Grilled's developing strikeforce had a hard time of it against such a backline, and the home team took full advantage to go ahead in the 28th minute. Their movement off the ball as Romanian midfielder Ovidiu Mihaitã floated a free-kick into the box was excellent, and Mausisa could only delay Sami Al-Sana'ani ineffectually as the Wolfes player cut in to nick the ball past Silvera.
Armed with a winning mentality, the Wolfes second-stringers worked extremely hard to stay in front, and were not above making questionable tackles to that end.
Tian Yonghang was a victim of one of Husein Al-Sa'fani's shirt tugs, which was one too many for the referee, who finally got around to book the defender.
Ciro Penati then showed his class as he burnt past two men to find the equally quick Safrinho racing down the middle, and the U-20 forward put it away first-time. Safrinho would continue being a handful for the Wolfes defence, and he baited Hatem Al-Sunaidar into receiving a yellow card with his fleet-footedness minutes later.
The fixture slowly spun out into an entertaining display, with German veteran Patrick Giebel putting Wolfes into the lead again in the 50th minute, courtesy of some pinpoint crossing from Lars Olafsen. The hosts then resumed their play-destroying tactics, leading to a third booking, this time for Teemu Nikinmaa, for time-wasting.
That would ironically lead to Grilled's second equaliser, as they pressed forward from the free-kick, and Safrinho pounced on a savvy pass from Han Kok, only for Wolfes goalie Hatem Al-Dubai to spectacularly redirect the stinging effort onto the crossbar. Unfortunately for him. Safrinho followed through like any good poacher should, and headed the rebound where it belonged.
Two-all remained the score at full-time, and Grilled looked the more likely side to win in extra-time, as experience began to tell -
Anders Josefsson so nearly won it with a delectable lob onto the woodwork, as did
Edvaldo Mourão with a drive that was barely thwarted by Al-Dubai. In the end, however, Giebel would score the golden goal off another well thought-out Wolfes set piece.
