Masca Massacre
Baptism Of Fire
The anticipation surrounding new goalie
Wong Tian Han was sky-high, given how he is the Birds' most expensive local signing ever, and the club's biggest single outlay for 26 seasons, but he was soon hauled down to earth by Peruvian Division Three visitors mascachorros, who introduced him to just how much of a work-in-progress Grilled's defence is.
The trio of
Walter Ross,
Hilal Bakhtiar and
Colby Awyong was seasoned but not exactly distinguished, and probably a sign that the coaching staff wanted Wong to have a taste of action, rather than being mollycoddled. Although a clean sheet would have been too much to expect, it was still quite brutal for Wong's goal to be breached within two minutes, as Greek centreback Yiorgos Toumpoulis waltzed right by Ross and found the corner.
Wong didn't look happy at that, and kept up a quietly confident front, only to discover that such appearances don't count for much with the Birds' backline. It didn't help that Manuel Perdiguero's first-time volley was stunning, and would have given any goalie a run for his money.
New go-to man
Chow Ying Lee got one back from a speedy dash down the left side, but Armando Cuevas quickly then made it three for mascachorros, as he brushed Colby aside before driving in a hard one. In fact, Wong had saved Grilled's bacon several times before that, but given the frequency of strikes coming in, that a few would get past him was inevitable.
Pompeo Bellamoli let a golden opportunity slide by and was duly replaced by
Leong Wan Kang for the second half, but that did nothing to change the overall picture. The visitors were as feisty as before, and Wong was called into action in the 54th minute when Marvin Echenique broke through. Wong bravely leaped at Echenique's feet, but was a split second too slow.
After
Tian Yonghang was caught late by Toumpoulis,
Djan Bacelar served up a creative free-kick that reached
Low Aik Jia at the top of the six-yard box, but the young winger clipped it way over. Worse, it led directly to Luuri Hanni scoring mascachorros' fifth on the counter.
Wong's Belgian opposite number Lauben Dhondt came out of the match very well indeed, as he denied Ross with a magnificent block in the 78th minute. In contrast, things just weren't going Wong's way, as he couldn't get anywhere near Giuseppe Cenciarelli when a corner came in, due to being blocked by his own teammates. Cenciarelli had an easy header then.
He did at least come out tops in his last significant act of the day, deflecting Toumpoulis' long shot over the bar, but all in all it was a sobering debut for Grilled's new Number One.
