Mainlander Mettle
Torrid Testimonial
Grilled's mix of oldies and youth fared badly in the testimonial for five of Grilled's veterans, tumbling to a six-nil defeat at the hands of Indonesian Division Two side AC Mainland. The veterans clearly were short on match fitness and played catch-up throughout the first half, but made a good fight of it when the tempo slowed later.
It was a line-up that paraded three of Grilled's Division Four performers, namely Bao-Tam, Chiew-Yen and Seng-kar. The three of them had not been used competitively for ages, unfortunately, as Chiew-Yen's failure to reach a through ball despite having a five metre headstart over the last man illustrated starkly.
It would still have been enough against most second-string sides, but AC Mainland are reputed for fielding very strong teams in friendlies, and indeed put out a reserve eleven that probably could survive in Grilled's own league. They sportingly kept to a defensive 5-3-2 to keep the goals down, but only succeeded partially.
AC Mainland's 50 year-old coach Mursyid Indarto gamely struck the opener as he barged his way past Tuan-Mu, who appeared reluctant to bring him down. Indarto still had plenty of bang in his boots though, and from a range of ten metres
Hang Bao-Tam was helpless to stop the very professional blast.
Han Kok tried to do a Shen and turn the game on its head, but his rash run at three central defenders unsurprisingly resulted in him losing out badly. His delayed dive was just a silly afterthought, which he must have known as he sheepishly accepted the yellow card from an amused referee.
Grilled's midfield worked well, but could not compare to AC Mainland's Untung Hasanudin and the superlative Conny Andersson, who is one of the top playmakers based in Indonesia. Grilled had no answer to their forcing their way through the middle, which resulted in a seven-minute run of four goals late in the first half.
Yourdika, Börjesson, Pandeynuwu and Andersson himself overwhelmed Tuan-Mu's lone stand as Grilled were clueless in defending, and worse had Seng-kar red-carded as he charged into a free-kick taker. Young Spanish defender Albert Marquès also got penalised for a foul.
The second half saw Marquès test Bao-Tam with a whopping shot that gave Bao-Tam another fond memory, as he dove low to save it with his wrist. Grilled's old keeper showed a safe pair of hands as he allowed Indonesian striker Abu Koibur only one goal from three easy chances, and may yet resurrect his professional career at another club, being only 28 years old.
AC Mainland turned the end-game into an exhibition as they saw that the older Grilled guys were well out of breath, and could have given up a consolation when
Terkel Borup looked like he had won a legitimate penalty when Pandeynuwu bodychecked him in the six-yard box. Bafflingly, the referee dished out the yellow card yet again.
