Onuba Burial
Cazos Casts Spell
Grilled Birds knew they were in for a tough time against Spanish Division Two club Recre Onuba - but not exactly how tough. The Andalucían giants would sweep the Birds before them on the back of their active defence helmed by Turkish captain Derya Atasoy, who together with Giuseppe Loi and Makis Likos made it their job not to allow the Grilled forwards to feel comfortable even for a moment. This together with Onuba's considerable midfield mojo was sufficient to shut the Birds out, with their own strikers having a far better time against Ha and company.
Romanian forward Andrei Jinaru, who scored both goals in their weekend league win against Mataos, would lead Onuba's line once more, and duly won a corner on his first touch as he dragged
Ha Qicai to the flag. Likos' outswinger was powered narrowly past the far post by Atasoy, but the opener would be theirs regardless; More good work by Jinaru freed Joan Busqué down the right wing, and he swung his cross low for Paolino Bonaccorso to crash it past
Dimitris Germanakos with a skimming strike.
Grilled tried to reply, but Onuba's pressure was total, and
Chia Kwang Tse couldn't stay upright against Giuseppe Loi's sticking to his back in the 19th minute, when
Chad Thach tried the through ball. A switch to bombing the box brought no better results, and indeed a yellow card for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul for his restraining of Likos. The long free-kick was nearly converted by Joan Busqué at the other end, and after Chia got booked too in harassing his marker, Alfredo Cazos put Onuba 2-0 up with a wonderful flying kick that
Hwang Teck Fu could only stare at.
Germanakos could only account himself unlucky for that, but the Spanish wizard was just getting started. Despite being two years younger, the lumbering
Raúl Himadas could barely stay on his tail, with this being simply a bad matchup for the Grilled newcomer. Cazos' next goal would be from a collective failing, however, as
Brian Reddy decided to stick to the post, instead of cover Cazos as a free-kick got nodded across the box. The Number Four was in no hurry as he brough it down on his thigh, and fired neatly between Reddy and Germanakos for their third.
The Birds' resistance was all but gone then, from how no-one chased Andrei Jinaru down after he stripped an uncertain Aw of the ball, as he desperately tried to find an outlet pass. Jinaru's shot went in off Germanakos' glove for 4-0, and it was just a question of whether Grilled could get an equalizer now.
Brian Reddy came closest with his lob over former Benin national goalkeeper Waro Dedo in the 69th minute, as Cazos completed his hat-trick to much whistling from his fans, after the ninety minutes were up.