Found Unanimously Guilty
Kyselý Does It
The Birds were relieved that it was only a friendly at the conclusion of their 10-1 drubbing at The Trial, which meant that they would have longer to wait for their first win in Uruguay. Pink Floyd, whom Grilled had beaten 3-1 in the first leg, capitalized upon a completely inept defensive display that will do nothing to help
Hovaness Noubaryan's cause.
Other than the goalkeeper and backline, the only difference for Grilled from last week was
lu Zunwen in central midfield, while they went up against a much-changed Floyd in both spirit and form. Abandoning the 4-5-1, the hosts played a standard 4-4-2 with Czech star Robin Kyselý back as captain. Kenny Lerby dropped back to midfield, while speedy Dutchman Salomon Eusweg started at right wingback.
Lerby, who had no joy at The Cooking Pot, immediately went about making up for lost time. Despite having Zunwen, Grilled were far too static in midfield, and had no answer to Floyd's width; Italian winger Joakim Geisenhauser was free to line up a cross as
Colby Awyong was loathe to come out all the way to the byline, and Lerby gleefully met it with a thumping header for an eighteenth-minute opener.
Regular striker Samuele Novello, who had not made the trip to Singapore either, then made it two when he cut in and then behind Noubaryan, then Awyong appeared to return the fight to the game with a well-hit grounder from
Ling Fuquan's delayed pass. That would turn out to be merely an early consolation, though.
It was not yet apparent by half-time, as Floyd got just the one more, again through Lerby. Tian's departure for
Chow Ying Lee was the straw that broke Grilled's back, as his fellow forward had far less inclination to pick a pass or track back, weakening the Birds' already floundering midfield.
Novello got the party started with a great free-kick that Noubaryan had no hope of getting to, which Kyselý added on to in minutes as he again exploited Grilled's especially leaky left side to dribble it pat the goalkeeper yet again. There was then a great roar from the crowd as Urs-Ulrich Hühnlein, who played in the Hattrick Masters with former Hungarian champions Cegga FC, replaced Rafale Abate in central defence, putting paid to Grilled's already dim prospects of getting a second.
Not that Grilled's didn't have other problems of their own, as no sooner had Hühnlein stepped on the pitch when an eighty-yard ball cleared everyone and settled near the corner flag, awaiting Geisenhauser to sprint up and whack it back infield. Swiss midfielder Nick Tschan went for it together with
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, and the opposing forces applied combined to loop it over Noubaryan, making it 7-1.
Novello would then complete his hat-trick with another top-drawer free-kick, and
Gleb Dorogan's introduction again made little impact as Floyd coasted on their confidence. Lerby wasn't going to come off after a hard fall, and two minutes later supplied Francisco Spica for the ninth, with a cheeky backheel into his path.
Rashid bin Ahmad was expressionless as he became Grilled's third and last substitution in what clearly was a losing cause, and even he could do nothing when the hosts came in numbers up the right to eventually feed Kyselý for a treble of his own, taking their final haul into double digits.
