Collection Complete
Internationale
After some twenty-eight seasons of chasing a moving target, Grilled have finally achieved their aim of visiting all Hattrick nations, which came to fruition against Suriname club TheSouthParkCows at TheSouthParkCows Stadion today.
Not only that, the Birds managed to look good while doing it, as they ran out 3-5 winners, thanks to two goals towards the end of the first half. TheSouthParkCows spiced things up by staging a late rally, but had to contend with immediate responses from the Grilled frontline.
The occasion was preceded by captains Yonghang and Kasanardjo swapping tokens before kick-off, a ceremony usually reserved for competitive matches, with the Grilled team looking slightly leaner and fitter than usual after their week-long training programme in Africa. They wasted no time getting down to business, and Safrinho tested Patrick Ferrier with a heavy blast five minutes in.
The hosts' adventurous 2-5-3 formation counterintuitively managed to hold Grilled back as they engaged high up the field, but this left a lot of space for opportune raids;
Edvaldo Mourão finally got the breakthrough after Yonghang led a charge down the right, and Safrinho then put another one in, using his terrific pace.
It wasn't all Grilled, though, and TheSouthParkCows' sprightly forward Jules Wols nearly got one back with a real rocket from the edge of the box, barely parried by
Alvaro Silvera. His day would come to an unfortunate end as he had to be stretchered off in the 71st minute, after a chance collision between his leg and Olsson's studs.
Han Kok had by then been substituted with
Lee Han Lai, and Grilled soon felt the effects as Quah's holding up of the ball began to be missed. Lanky I Made Hutahaean then courted controversy when his head and hand appeared to make contact with the ball en route to it spiralling past Silvera into the net, but to the referee, he had certainly made the goal, among other things.
Fan Xiuyu responded with a chip over Ferrier within the minute to restore Grilled's two-goal advantage, and after Wols' replacement Jatin Ghosh scored for the home team in the 79th minute following some brilliant passing, Xiuyu again got through to keep the Birds comfortably ahead.
There was time for Safrinho to make it five, courtesy of his adding of a long-range shot to his repertoire, only for Kenneth Ferrier, perhaps the younger brother of goalie Patrick, to reply with an inch-perfect strike after rounding a disinterested
Ciro Penati at wingback.
