No Bull Cracker
Love Of Goals In The Air
Grilled Birds might have emerged victorious against Tanzanian II.2 leaders (T)anza (B)ulls, but the real winners were the fans, who got eleven goals to savour in this no-holds-barred fest. The Bulls were definitely doing a lot right, having won six in a row, but Danish head coach Preben Bennetzen was certainly not sitting still; old favourites Marcelo Fabián Acquesta and Hans Hayek had been shifted out just last month to make way for new wingers Verneris Rickus and Kopano Sephekolo, both of whom would start today, with Indonesian former U-20 star forward Jeremi Sofian captaining the side from the front.
Despite both teams operating in a 2-5-3, the Bulls' version had their forwards spread wide a lot more, which caused some trouble for
Ha Qicai and
Raúl Himadas. The latter would be caught up in a clever switch-up between Rickus and Carlos Seifert in the 26th minute, which opened space for the Austrian Number Ten to boom a drive past
Dimitris Germanakos. Five minutes later,
Hwang Teck Fu would reply with a fine dipping curler... but neither of them could have suspected what was to come.
It was obvious that nobody was bothering overmuch with defending, helped by the low stakes, and
Ha Qicai would find himself dangling off the outside of the Bulls' penalty box in the 36th - and lucky with his strike. This was answered by two goals in the span of sixty seconds, as Canadian playmaker Lancelot Sénéchal hit it down the middle from the spot following a handball, after which Tarik Lojo fired home from a goalmouth melee.
Brian Reddy spun through to level at 3-3, however, and Grilled should really have had a penalty of their own, when Allard Eysker felled
Raúl Himadas on his blistering run 40 minutes in, or so it looked.
The seeming injustice did not sit well with
Chad Thach, who made it a point to delay the Bulls' free-kick, while hectoring the referee. That ended more or less as could have been expected, with him getting booked. Grilled Birds would restart the game in an uncompromising mood, and
Chia Kwang Tse soon relieved his friendly exploits, with a classy half-volley to put the Birds in front once more. His temper also got the better of him, however, as he also got cautioned for bickering with his Myanmar marker Tun Paing Soe, a couple of minutes later.
The Zanzibar side were struggling badly now, as the Birds found their stride, and they were fortunate that their ex-Curaçao youth goalie Allard Eysker was in top form - or it might have gone very badly indeed. He would tip a
Mohd Marzuki Khairul onto the bar in the 62nd, and only bad follow-up defending allowed
Lim An Keng to snatch the rebound home. A big save from
Brian Reddy soon followed, and after a third card went Reddy's way for a late challenge, the winger would set Lim up for 6-3 with a twisting cross that the Number 26 glanced in at the far post.
(T)anza (B)ulls had fight left in them yet, and Grilled's slowness in retreating against their kick-off would leave Seifert to claim his second goal, after Oski Niinijärvi carved the Birds open on the left. Another goal came two minute later as Jeremi Sofian threw himself heedlessly at Rickus' delivery despite
Aw Keng Chuan's looming boot, which won him grudging respect from even the Birds' supporters.
Fears of a late equalizer faded as Grilled seized the initiative back once more, and it was Eysker who had to be called on next, with
Ha Qicai spraying a shot from the left side of the box, that passed too close for comfort. The Bulls then lived dangerously with Lancelot Sénéchal's takedown of
Lim An Keng a whisker outside the penalty area, but
Raúl Himadas stepped over the free-kick, and
Chia Kwang Tse then hit it solidly into the wall.
