Skye Halfsies
Strehlau Surveys Both Ends
Italian Division Six visitors Talisker Skye F.C. scrapped to a very credible two-all draw against Grilled's second XI in today's friendly, managing to take the lead twice against a visibly out-of-whack Birds 3-5-2.
Clark Won and
Hariharan Prabhu were less than convincing playing across the middle, but their slump was rescued to an extent by
Rinor Isufi, who made a case for more competitive gametime with perhaps his best-ever performance as a playmaker for the team.
Luis Alcántara had declared before kick-off that the objective for the game would be on close marking, and from what happened, it would be hard to give Grilled much more than a pass. There was a glaring lack of anything close to that when Polish centreback Dawid Strehlau attacked in the fifth minute, and former youth international
Rashid bin Ahmad deserved blushes for electing to stick to Mattia Cavazzano instead of confronting the immediate threat.
Krystian Rykowski's first touch wound up being to pick the ball out of his own net, but the stakes were low enough that he managed some friendly banter with his countryman as he did that. The sparse diehards who turned up were getting restless, when
Clément Meyer got stuck in, and picked Edgar Stassen's pocket in the 17th minute. He immediately punted it in the general direction of the opposition box, and
Rinor Isufi managed to race onto it despite his disadvantaged starting position. Skye goalie Stefan Rühl slid in together with the Albanian, but was a foot too late.
Grilled actually had most of the ball, but acting skipper
Leong Wan Kang was well guarded by Strehlau, and a 39 year-old
Domenik Bögengang was definitely not about to be able to turn a match around by himself. Thomas Rivier backed him away all too easily the few times he got a taste, and on one clearance, promising teenaged forward Laurin Étienne Meylender centered it for Błażej Szetela to strike, earning yet another short Polish exchange in goal.
Leong wasn't wanting for trying, all said, and the armband served only to increase his usually-unimpeachable workrate. Unfortunately, all the graft in the world couldn't help him get past the defensively-sound Strehlau, who was no slacker himself. A 41st-minute altercation would be judged in favour of the Skye man, and left Leong slightly subdued with a card to his name.
Given how the first half had gone for him, Bögengang could not have been surprised when he was replaced by
Pompeo Bellamoli before the break, but truth be told, the Italian did little better. He did shine in spurts, though he had nothing to do with Grilled's second equaliser, which was the cumulation of a fine exchange between Leong and
Low Aik Jia.
Low has often been criticized for his inconsistency, and at times for a lack of end-product, but both were in abundance on this move. With Grilled finding it difficult to unlock the obstinate Skye backline, Low reminded viewers that he holds a bunch of keys, with his deceptively-simple show-and-go to burst past Edgar Stassen. Leong cleverly returned the pass looking the other way, leaving Low to place a pinpoint effort into Rühl's far corner.
That would be about as much as the Birds would manage, although they had plenty of chances to win it in the last half-hour or so. The best of all was perhaps
Hariharan Prabhu going clear in the 57th minute thanks to more good pass selection by Isufi, only for Rühl to bat it back. Inexplicably, Isufi himself then stabbed it wide of the open goal, his only major mistake of the game.
Hilal Bakhtiar's miss later on was rather more within the odds, coming as it did after the doughty reserve man turned Roberto Nassini with a dazzling flick. Skye were legitimately being pressed at this stage, and it would soon be Dawid Strehlau's turn to take one for the team, stopping
Rinor Isufi from putting Bellamoli through with an instant free-kick in the 74th.
There was still time, but the visitors were getting used to Grilled's offensive patterns as well, and goalscorers Strehlau and Szetela were ironically among their top defensive runners as well. Oldies
Zhao Jing Wei and
Qassem Madaini were thrown on very late, but barely registered before Danish referee Sven Hoff decided that he had seen enough.
