Thrown To The Lions
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Trainees
Wardi Azhari and
Tang Hengcai are nursing serious injuries incurred during the brutal 0-3 defeat to Pakistani Division Two club Alam Lions, all the goals coming from Latvian midfielder Paulis Kantors' hat-trick. The young Birds were completely unprepared for the visitors' comprehensive defensive gameplan, and were cut to shreds whenever the Lions picked their time to attack.
The 32 year-old Kantor's competitive side came out in the seventh minute, when he confronted
Li Boon Boon after what he felt was a late tackle, and had to be booked by the referee before he would back off. The ill-feeling had not completely subsided when Kantor rounded
Colby Awyong to score in the 25th minute, with the nearly four thousand local fans reminding all and sundry whose side they were on.
That didn't blunt the Lions' edge, and
Wardi Azhari was the next victim as he took the full force of a slide in from his blind side by Jannick Zenker. Another yellow was given, and again had no effect as the away side turned the screws, with Kantors chipping in a second after Ralph Reininger's attempt was well tipped over.
Acting coach Luis Alcántara was seen having a few words with his counterpart Sidney Poutini at the break, and the two looked amicable enough, patting each others' backs. The second half did start off at a calmer trot, with Kantor even avoiding the boos for his classy 48th minute goal.
The spirit of goodwill quickly wore thin, though, and things came to a head in the 57th minute as Wardi was elbowed by an opponent, or ran straight into the elbow, depending on which side you take. The referee ruled it accidental, but it was clear that the luckless youngster, who had soldiered on bravely despite his first-half knock, was out cold. The match was stopped while medics placed his head in a brace as a precaution, but thankfully Wardi came to and managed a faint wave as he was stretchered off.
Peruvian
Rosendo Chinchay made his first appearance in nearly two months, and immediately began sorting out Grilled's thus-far headless midfield. This brought immediate effects, with
Hilal Bakhtiar pulling off a superb penalty save from Ivó Halmi, before
Lin Jungui came very close to making ot 3-1 off a direct counter from deep.
Normalcy had almost returned when French winger Arnaud Moisan went it with a frankly horrible challenge on
Tang Hengcai, which nearly buckled the promising forward's ankle under him. It was certain that something had give way the way Tang went down, and Luis was up in a flash, ready to run at Moisan. It took some time before the match officials managed to get everybody settled down, before further infuriating the Grilled party by refusing to send Moisan off.
The remainder of the contest saw a couple of near misses by the all-blue opponents, but whatever happened it was unlikely that they would be given a rousing send-off by the supporters.
