Praiaed Apart
Krishnan Does One
Grilled's reserves were wiped out 7-1 by reigning Cape Verde national and cup champions Praia & Starachowice United, who helped attract a good-sized crowd of over 4300 to The Cooking Pot.
Hovaness Noubaryan kept his spot in goal, with
Lin Jungui the only first-team regular in the starting lineup.
Praia were not shy in parading their stars, and Swiss striker Cédric Morais graced the field for twenty minutes, making some neat passes before he was withdrawn for defender Dietrich Pflugk. Ironically, his team stepped up a gear after that, and Elchanan Kor's opener arrived shortly after down the left once more.
Perhaps anxious to break that run,
Colby Awyong clattered into Miloslav Vik trying to get in front of him the very next minute, and was judged to have made contact within the penalty area. Noubaryan gamely dived in the right direction at Simo Ant-Wuorinen's spot kick, but it was just too well-placed for him to catch.
Pflugk sniped a third in before
Krishnan Adabala recorded his third friendly goal for the Birds off a corner-kick, which was the only way Grilled had come close to scoring. Trainee fullback Filipe Jesus Manhoso restored the margin of advantage for Praia immediately, skipping past
Hung Wee Li to squeeze one past Noubaryan.
Grilled clearly did not have the result on their minds as they pulled
Lin Jungui off at half-time, giving
Edvaldo Mourão a chance to reprise a midfield role. There was little effect on the Birds' overall shape, and they soon gave up goals to Miloslav Vik and Elchanan Kor before the hour mark had passed.
Hilal Bakhtiar made a hash of Grilled's biggest opening of the half when he lunged past two players only to poke wide, and Simo capped an excellent game with a free-kick screamer. Madaini and Vukota made last-minute appearances, far too late to affect anything.
