Hilal Serious
Tang Defiance
In a battle of II.2 against II.2, Grilled took on reigning Palestinian Cup holders Al Hilal Gaza on their home ground, and were repelled 7-1. While their last non-league games at My playground! had not ended well, with a Cup defeat on penalties against Kings of night in the Round of Sixteen following a Hattrick Masters exit at the hands of Greek visitors Porfyras, they had no such trouble against the naive lineup that the Birds sent.
Grilled kept faith with
Hilal Bakhtiar in goal, with his name almost necessitating a start for the recent addition, and again sprinkled their youth liberally around all positions other than defence.
lu Zunwen was again tasked with keeping the team running, though
Niculae Stanca ended up doing most of the shouting from the back.
There was a lot of that to be done, with Grilled none too convincing in cutting out the passing lanes as the youngsters seemed more intent on getting into the highlights. A ill-advised pass was stopped in the Hilal half by Antti Sointu in the ninth minute, who saw Hasim Barjes waving for it down the middle. While a midfielder by trade, Barjes has made a name for himself in knocking them in, and he clobbered yet another past Bakhtiar, to add to his six in the Cup this season.
Correctly sensing that Grilled were shaky defensively, the hosts kept the ball moving in the attacking half, and it was a wonder that Grilled managed to hold out until the 31st minute when Greek striker Lakis Fourfouras pushed the ball past
Walter Ross and sent it over the line with his next move.
Tang Hengcai scored what would be the Birds' consolation six minutes on from a Ross corner kick, and immediately after that missed what would have been the tying goal.
That would be the last good opportunity that Grilled would get, as Hilal tightened up their play. Wassim Tohme's booking for professionally holding up play was an example of the far superior decision-making that they incorporated, in stark contrast to
Neo Da Teck and
Krishnan Adabala staring at each other while Jaleel Abu Zaid made his merry way between them to make it 3-1.
An ineffective
Li Boon Boon was subbed off at half-time for
Teo Yong Yau, but that had no effect on the bigger picture as Grilled remained horribly disjointed. The young team's morale took a huge hit when Isa Abbas Tayyem got through to deliver a fourth, and had clearly given up when Ibrahim El Beik folded in neatly from the left flank to put the score up to five.
El Beik and Tayyem would complete braces in the 78th and 79th minute respective, before
Han Lik-Tsun, having seen enough, introduced
Slavcho Tzonkov for Ross. The former Bulgarian U-20 representative was an immediate upgrade, and stemmed the Hilal tide almost single-handedly, but it was of course far too late for the Birds to turn things around. Still, there was enough time for Zunwen to make way for
Yvan Lefébure to collect his appearance fee.
