Through After KS
Chowed Down
A five-nil win over KS Jeziorak Iława ensured that Grilled would make the knockout stages of Turniej im.Witolda Pileckiego, as it took them six points ahead of third-placed COBRAT Olsztyn. The rubber against KS Lego Nielba Wągrowiec will now only determine who enters as group winners, after they disposed of COBRAT 3-0.
KS Jeziorak Iława were, like Grilled, involved in this tournament for the first time, and the Polish Division Seven hopefuls had gotten a rude introduction last week when they were blown away by Wągrowiec. They are no strangers to highs and lows, though, having just crushed FC Meszty 10-0 in the league, but also losing 1-7 to Hordosja before that.
While Iława were not huge on stars, Georgian winger Dimitri Tabutsadze has won some followers with his cerebral style down the right, and Italian leftback Enrico Epicoco is known both for putting crosses in, and converting them; Swiss forward Mattia Stücheli is suspended for the league, but was still available to lead the line in this fixture.
With the Birds not known for width in defence, Iława made a point to outflank them, but were unfortunately faced with a headache of their own there.
Wong Ping Shun and
Low Aik Jia both started, and they soon had the Polish side pegged back. After four minutes, Low caused Epicoco to concede the first corner of the match, with a head-down rush along the goalline. Wong struck it true, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim flew strongly at it to crash it home.
Grilled's wingers were in the mood for laying balls in, and Wong notched up a second assist in the tenth minute. This time, he put it in flat, and
Chow Ying Lee appeared to not have done enough as his header went straight at Chilean keeper Diego Gutiérrez. To his delight, however, Iława skipper Joeri Looyen tried to clear it midway, and only succeeded in lifting it over his own goalie.
With Looyen not eager to claim that one, Chow was recorded as the scorer. Mario Quellmelz got the only card of the game for a committed challenge on
Ling Fuquan, which both took in their stride.
Nicola Vandeneynde clipped the bar from a long shot, and then Wong nearly got a hat-trick of assists, as he chipped another through for
Gene Filippone. Gutiérrez swiped it over this time.
Woon Shun An did make it 3-0 before half-time, twisting inside on his own.
Tabutsadze played noticeably more to the inside for the second half, but his additional pair of legs did little to avail Iława. Indeed, given more freedom,
Chow Ying Lee dropped wide to pick up the ball in the 65th minute, before slashing his way past a defending Thomas Berthe to extend Grilled's lead to four.
Iława found it difficult to keep motivated, given that elimination was all but certain. Filippone raised some eyebrows with an extremely ambitious attempt from near the halfway line, that wound up bothering only the spectators behind the goal.
Zhu Changchun then came rather closer with a crossbar-rattler, just before Filippone was withdrawn for
Joan Cisquell.
It was then down to
Wong Ping Shun to conclude the contest, which he did with a free-kick screamer.
