Berries Shared
Mendes Kickstart
Jamaican Division Two leaders Bloody Berries demonstrated no lack of attacking intent, as they brought yet another 3-3 draw to The Cooking Pot today. The Grilled reserves had to hustle as they fought from a trailing position for large swathes of the match, but put in a strong finish and were perhaps hard done in not taking it further.
Berries are the offshoot of Californian heavyweights Cabana Mulberries, but may arguably have outshone their parents in reaching the finals of the just-concluded Jamaican Cup, where they however lost to a single goal by Ángel Héctor Pico, of prospective double winners Castellaneta in the world. With personnel like former USA youth team member Alejandro Casado, though, the Bloody Berries look set to continue challenging for honours.
Another of their key players, Hugh Mendes, would prove his worth in the early going this wet Wednesday morning, as he pointedly gave
Hariharan Prabhu the runaround in their first confrontation. The wet ground did few any favours, but especially not
Pompeo Bellamoli, whose slip-up led directly to Mendes' opener in the fifth minute - a reflex potshot that slithered past
Krystian Rykowski.
Grilled resorted to textbook hoofing it and hoping that their forwards got a piece of it, but
Leong Wan Kang was never quite a classic target man, and Berries' veteran back two of Kareem Watson and D.C. Stephens neutralised him by sticking close. Rudi Wegener on the other hand was suited to this style, and brought a searching 12th minute ball down for Mendes to have another go. He was once again spot-on, finding the net from the edge of the area.
The Birds persevered grimly, responding to Luis Alcántara's direction of keeping the ball safe, and this did at least stabilize the situation. Actual chances remained tough to come across, until midfielder Leroy Anderson went down entangled with
Moey Xin Seng in the 27th. Grilled played on and Leong scored, to the disapproval of the visiting contingent, especially as Anderson had to hobble off, and Kareem Henry come in.
With Henry not quite yet in Anderson's class, Grilled's advantage in the middle was cemented, but Berries proved remarkably difficult to break down in the rain. Alcántara's next move was to bring
Zhao Jing Wei on in the 60th minute, with a view towards hurrying play up from the back, which the versatile veteran did encourage with his expansive distribution.
One of those reached
Yuki Irie in the 72nd minute, who centered it for Prabhu to contest. The Grilled midfielder fell dramatically after coming off second best against Stephens, and appealed immediately for a penalty. Swedish referee David Mårtensson met the request with a withering smile, but Prabhu persisted not getting the hint, and was booked at the next stoppage.
This did ultimately lead to Grilled's equaliser, as Gus Colyn was caught watching the drama unfold, and was in no position to catch
Pompeo Bellamoli's headstart on Irie's long throw-on. It would be Spanish goalkeper Sergi Trives' turn to curse the pitch conditions, as Bellamoli's effort sailed in under the crossbar seemingly assisted by the wind.
Bellamoli would shortly thereafter be taken for, for the eager
Kohei Okuya to have a shot at becoming a hero, but it would be the Berries who would return to the lead instead. Having rarely ventured out of their own territory for some time, Florian Geipel suddenly threw
Remco van der Ban off with his sprint down the outside right, and Rudi Wegener finished off Geipel's unembellished cross with a similarly direct header.
Despite it only being a friendly, this nevertheless left a bad taste in the mouths of the home team, and Moey responded with a raking diagonal strike that Trives barely deflected onto the woodwork. Watson was not able to clear it properly under relentless pressure from Okuya, however, and
Leong Wan Kang secured a tie with his fine curler from fifteen yards.
