End Of Adventure
Gumpel Goes On
Grilled's Cup campaign came to a close in the seventh round, as they were narrowly defeated by Joejos78 FC, courtesy of two first-half goals. The Birds upped their game later on, but
Domenik Bögengang's sole reply with his eleventh goal of the season so far wasn't enough.
All eyes were on U-20 forward
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, who arrived early at Grilled's training ground for a checkup, but the 20 year-old ended up sitting in the stands at Joejos Death Valley after failing the late medical. Bögengang would start his second match in four days, while Grilled returned
Roberto Mausisa to the lineup at the left of a four-man defence.
This left Grilled severely outmatched in midfield against five from the home side, and Joejos78 quickly took the initiative. The Birds rebuffed them quite well, until the 25th minute when veteran French winger Frankie Petit came through with a piece of genius, skipping his way past both Lefébure and Mausisa in one swoop. Behr tried to cover, but it was too late as Petit let loose a perfect grounder.
This forced the Birds to move on to their Plan B, which they looked woefully ill-equipped for. Indeed, they swiftly went another goal down from the Joejos response, with German midfielder Maximus Gumpel finding the target with his right foot.
It looked extremely bad for Grilled, who had won their last six matches without conceding a solitary goal, at this point. Thankfully, the home team, who had won by scoring exactly two goals in five of their last six games, pulled back despite Grilled being on the ropes, perhaps through force of habit.
Grilled waited until the second half to make their changes, and the first to be taken off was the unnotable
Tian Yonghang, who appeared to be slowly working his way back into form. His replacement was
Fan Xiuyu, who made an admirable effort to inject some urgency into the Grilled attack.
More drastic measures followed, as Grilled sacrificed both their wingbacks for two midfielders, introducing
Anders Josefsson and
Gleb Dorogan in their stead. This did help Grilled retain possession, but they found it difficult to get anything against a Joejos side now intent on defending their lead, with Italian central defender Angelo Faccioli an absolute rock.
Grilled's persistance eventually paid off with seven minutes remaining, as
Fan Xiuyu was felled by a late challenge from József Kozma just inside the penalty area. That was a yellow card for the Romanian, and a penalty for Grilled, from which Argentine goalie Fernando Gulina was finally beaten by Bögengang.
The Birds pressed for the goal which would allow them to take the tie to extra time, and had to rely on Valdir to keep them in it as he barely diverted Petit's excellent free-kick over the bar. Time was not on their side, sadly, but Grilled could take some comfort in progressing their furthest in four seasons.
