Flight Of Fancy
Michael Domination
Season Fifteen of the Dominion International Cup began with the Birds getting punished by Dominican Republic double holders Flights International Football School, who paraded just how they had reached the pinnacle of their country, with a massive yet balanced performance. Powered by the former international duo of José Manuel Mármol and Fernando Di Nardo in midfield, with imported strike stars Michael Kendale and Aggelos Kourmouzis terrorizing defences, this was a starting lineup that had been tuned - and aged - to perfection by Jesús Solar, like a very fine wine.
If Grilled Birds had any consolation, it was that regular Number One Hipólito Martins Castro had sustained a twisted wrist in their 3-1 league victory against Rayo Vallekano R. D. just yesterday, which had 23 year-old understudy Juan José Niño take his place. Niño was, however, also capped at U-20 level for the Dominican Republic, which meant that he was hardly easy pickings either. Well,
Hwang Teck Fu had never put much stock in reputations, and he would flight a rocket into the near top corner in the 14th minute, against the run of play.
Grilled were daring to believe as they hustled FIFS to an uneasy equilibrium, although it had to be clear to the neutrals that the Dominican champions remained a cut above. They were noticeably tidier on the ball, for one, and it was evident that if the Birds were to go further ahead, they would need to rely on graft and some luck. This would not come to pass, alas, as the referee awarded FIFS a soft penalty 35 minutes in, after
Raúl Himadas pushed into Kendale a little too hard for the Englishman's liking. Designated taker Kourmouzis would take his time staring
Radomil Marcol down, before pocketing it into the bottom left.
That goal would unlock the floodgates, as Kendale put his team into the lead barely two minutes later, after being the only one to foresee Elói Sim-Sim's crazy launch from deep down the right flank. There was hardly time to catch a breath as
Chad Thach matched that with a superb crossover dribble that left sweeper Giorgio Magrini for dead, but the scoreline would somehow be 4-2 to FIFS at half-time, with Fernando Di Nardo and then Kendale again shredding Grilled's central defence to ribbons.
Captain
Ha Qicai was unable to mask his anger as he booted the ball into the hoardings after Kendale's second goal, risking an unnecessary yellow card, which was fortunately avoided. Still, there was no concealing the Birds' failings at the back, that FIFS were far too good to leave unexploited. Three minutes into the restart, French Number Seven Lat Diallo pushed boldly upfield with
Brian Reddy running into a blind corner, and a disguised pullback had Kendale step over the inbound pass, for Giorgio Magrini to make it five.
Grilled had not capitulated yet, dim as their hopes were, and there would be a three-minute period beginning in the 56th minute, that might yet have made the game more interesting.
Darko Andrović had not had a good day at all against Gilberto Landaeta's suffocating attentions, but his loss was
Chia Kwang Tse's gain for once, as his miscontrol off
Lim An Keng's knockback left Chia with a rare open look. The Number Six struck a wicked knuckleball probably by accident, but Juan José Niño still got both hands to it.
Not only that, Niño's mighty punch would land almost at the halfway line, which had Hermes Hernández instinctively sweep it across for Sebastian Hubscher on the expected overlap. Kourmouzis would be one-on-one against Marcol in seconds... but his grounder rang back hard off the base of the post. It was then the Birds' turn again, but their attempted counterattack would get clogged up outside the box, and
Hwang Teck Fu's final try at making something of it came to naught, as Magrini shepherded that pass back to his goalie, with Chitre shielded off.
The Birds' resistance came to an end in the 68th minute, as Michael Kendale completed his hat-trick, which had in truth been some time in the making.
Ha Qicai appeared to have him under watch as the long ball from midfield came down, but the Grilled skipper hadn't accounted for how delicate Kendale's touch could be; an almost-imperceptible tap had the ball spinning right where he wanted it, and the follow-up lob eluded Marcol's straining reach.
