Manchester Through
Tenis Stretches
Serie A club Manchester Cavallo had defended their place in the Italian top flight with a 4-1 victory over II.2 champions Villaggio Della Foglia a couple of days ago, and the Sicilians would replicate the feat against the Birds today, to advance in the Dominion International Cup. Latvian forward Tenis Nesaule, who struck the last goal against Villaggio, would claim two more here, but that was not enough to stop him from being transfer-listed by Cavallo, just a fortnight after his arrival.
Turkish boss Oğuz Can Türme was definitely not the sentimental sort, having brought in seven players in the past few weeks, with former Spanish international midfielder Denis Novo probably the most-heralded of them all. Novo would be Cavallo's main driving force as they went for a narrow 3-5-2 today, which Grilled matched as well as they could. It wasn't enough, however, with the Italians looking clearly the sprightlier of the two sides.
The main battle would be between Novo and
Aw Keng Chuan as Cavallo largely pinned Grilled back, and it would take all of
Radomil Marcol's reflexes to reach the tricky lob of Estonian ex-national winger Raigo Vihtla, in the nineteenth minute. There was no stopping Nesaule's scorcher two minutes later as the Birds' defenders got pulled all over, but Aw would equalize ten minutes later with
Lim An Keng advancing at pace.
Andrea Marcotulli was booked for his part in holding
Chia Kwang Tse down in an off-the-ball struggle then, but Grilled's celebratory mood did not last long, with Turkish defensive star Azim Burla ramming a knuckleball past Marcol from the edge of the box next. Grilled actually had a fine run from here to the end of the half, but
Paulino Trindade's finishing left something to be desired. Nesaule would raise some heartrates with a cheeky effort from the right wing that nearly embarassed Marcol, as
Chad Thach got a yellow card too, for trying to win a penalty - badly.
Raúl Himadas ended the half with an extended dribble that had him somehow worm his way through on the inside of Belgian fullback Timothée Lybaert, but Burla would close him down before he managed to recover the ball. 55 minutes in, Cavallo saw Gottfried Stangl surge past
Brian Reddy to supply Nesaule for his second goal; Reddy would lose his cool soon afterwards, and was fortunate not to be sent off for his vicious slide in from behind on Stangl, after being overrun once more.
Grilled were actually not doing too badly at creating opportunities, but their opponents had the knack of making them difficult. For example,
Gandhik Chitre sold Timothée Lybaert down the river with an audacious turn in the 62nd minute, but his French teammate Trần Khải Tuấn was on him in a second, turning the big chance into a tiny one. Trần would be involved in a triple sub soon after Tommy Michenthaler's card for repeated fouling, and there was nothing of that defensive coordination on the Birds' part, when Martin Tandori latched onto Dmitriy Shibeko's clever forward ball two minutes on.
The Birds refused to give in, and they might yet have had a prayer, had
Raúl Himadas' thundering 77th minute free-kick gone their way. It appeared to have just about crossed the goalline after coming down off the bar, but the referee remained unconvinced. Calls for VAR would be waved off as the action continued, and
Gandhik Chitre digging the loose ball well over Indonesian custodian Kusnadi Hutasoit was the end of that story.
