Untenderly Loved
Hon No Honey
Hong Kong national player Hon Xiaodong, Suen Chengnan and Francis Möbius potted two goals each for dominant Hong Kong club Love Mimi Football Club, who are going for their seventh straight 1st Division League title. The gap between them and Grilled was all too apparent, all the more on Mimi's home ground, even if the Birds will surely seldom encounter such strength in a weekday friendly anytime soon.
Winners of twelve national trophies, the Hong Kong juggernauts' fortunes stood in stark opposition to the Birds' flagging ones, but the manner it had been built recently - on the backs of five homegrown stars - was not exactly alien to Grilled. On top of that, the Birds would always be underdogs, with player-coach Gert Kriechbaum and veteran Roland Alberts the only weak links in an otherwise very competitive Mimi XI for the day.
It would however be Grilled's
Rinor Isufi who would record the first shot on target, and after just three minutes at that. Having endured more than a little snideness at his underwhelming first-team showings, Isufi was on a mission to correct perceptions, and broke the Mimi defence through a spectacular spin that eluded both of their big men. Goalkeeper Tsang Qingjiang correctly stayed on his feet as Isufi advanced, and put his body on the line to make the save.
Expected service then began, as the hosts took over. With a badly off-form
Gene Filippone and the feckless
Remco van der Ban at the back, Grilled were not going to afford much protection to
Dan Seng. Seng could only do so much in the eleventh minute when Suen dribbled through, and Mimi went one up.
Cards for
Hariharan Prabhu and
Zhao Jing Wei sandwiched Francis Möbius' headed goal as the Birds resorted to roughhousing, which to be honest did help in keeping the score down. Isufi even managed to grab one back in the 35th minute, a classic poacher's strike after
Low Aik Jia had flanked Jorge Humberto Urtegarrieta on the left.
Mimi would restore their two-goal advantage before the half ended, again through the deadly Suen, who pounced once their intricate free-kick arrangement wound up with the ball passed ahead of him just inside the six-yard box.
Dan Seng recognized the danger and went for it too, but Suen was a fraction of a second too quick for him.
The home team's superiority only increased as the match continued, and the second half was literally one-way traffic.
Gene Filippone will have a hard time convincing the coaches to let him back into the starting lineup, seeing as how he allowed Francis Möbius to trot past him, which resulted in an easy fourth goal tapped past Seng.
Dan Seng did not actually have a bad outing, though, and if it were not for him, the final score could conceivably have gone into double digits. With Grilled under heavy siege from the Mimi offence, Seng came up with an excellent reflex save against Kriechbaum's improvised backheel in the 64th minute, and intercepted Möbius's square ball to Lai Xiaobao after Remco missed the routine clearance.
Hong Kong international star Hon Xiaodong chose this time to step up, and in the 74th minute, he demonstrated the versatility that had convinced national selectors to grant him near fifty caps at all levels. A standard bringing of the ball down with his instep was turned into a full turn after Low tried to interfere, and Hon left the impatient winger on his butt before blazing through and holding off Filippone for 5-1.
Hon would notch the sixth and last the very next minute, as Hui Xuting peeled off to the outside, with the angled header that has been his bread and butter as an attacking midfielder.
Tian Yonghang attempted to rally the Birds to a second consolation after coming on for a spent
Zhao Jing Wei with five minutes left, but Mimi simply refused to yield possession.
