Suffered By Art
Chetvertak Charge
Armenian Division Two club Artsakh dealt Grilled their second friendly defeat in as many weeks, as Luis Alcántara's experiment with a shooting game ended negatively. The 4-5-1 with
Djan Bacelar a lone striker was simply too easy for Artsakh's five at the back to deal with, while their up-and-coming pair of goalies, Gevorg Bohchalyan and Fadey Gaponyuk, cleaned up what efforts came from deep.
Other than the duo, the visitors' other big names were undoubtedly Italian forward Pier Luigi Pederboni and Ukrainian central midfielder Valentyn Chetvertak, and between them they did enough to keep the corresponding sections of Grilled's team occupied. On the Birds' end, it was a special day for 22 year-old
Dennis Kong, as he made his first start in six months.
Given orders to fire at will, Grilled's forwards-in-midfield indulged themselves, but Bohchalyan soon showed that it would take something out of this world to beat him. Ironically, it would be Artsakh who put in the best specimen from distance, as Chetvertak hit a thumping half-volley at
Dan Seng's far top corner. The under-fire youngster acquitted himself well then, though, bringing it down quite confidently.
Kong nearly embellished his return with a maiden goal, as he raced breathlessly from his right-back position to get inside the Artsakh penalty area in time for
Chow Ying Lee to flip a pass to him, but unfortunately his shot wouldn't match his control.
Chetvertak showed how it should be done in the 39th minute, to produce what would be the only goal of the match. Grilled were getting complacent after fannying about with the ball around midfield, and a steal from Simon Badrigyan sparked an instant counterstrike, which left Chetvertak to outflank Seng and camly sweep it in.
Chow and the just-recovered
lu Zunwen switched positions for the second half, but neither that nor
Liang Liyong's entry made an appreciable impact. The Russian Gaponyuk showed that he was the equal of Bohchalyan with save after save made to look easy, and the more seasoned fans soon accepted that a recovery was unlikely.
The only time Gaponyuk looked like being beaten was when
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim worked his way to a penalty against opposing captain Misak Kachigyan, but the normally-dependable Bacelar rolled it wide.
Dan Seng did continue repairing his tarnished reputation with a brave block off Chetvertak, but would go off injured with five minutes remaining, while
Tian Yonghang found the post, and
Colby Awyong's last despairing strike was effortlessly caught.
