Second Teamers Done
Trần On Top
As the first team squad continued on their tournament tour, Grilled's second-string visited Vietnam to clash with Division Four club DoiAnh, and were mostly unconvincing in a 0-4 loss that did not particularly flatter the hosts.
The Birds did drag in some wing reinforcements in the form of
Rinor Isufi and
Low Aik Jia, but the clearly jet-lagged duo were at best peripheral after a jumpy opening. Low made perhaps Grilled's best chance of the game in the sixth minute, when he got past Lê Nguyễn Lợi on pure speed, but young goalkeeper Trần Quý Ly demonstrated why DoiAnh were willing to fork out over S$2 million for him, with a magnificent fingertip stop.
As the rain began falling in earnest, Low and Isufi began looking less than overjoyed at having to trudge through the mud, and DoiAnh began gaining the upper hand; midfielder Lê Văn Trị gave fair warning with a sound volley off Nguyễn Hồng Thái's cross, before another from the hardworking right winger was literally burrowed home by Trần Phúc Thành.
Rashid bin Ahmad too was helpless in the face of Trần's vigorous style, which referee Oscar Geissberger appeared more than in favour of. He was taken to the ground several times by the forward's strong shielding style, and eight minutes after Hoàng Bửu Dung's trick free-kick was barely saved by
Krystian Rykowski, Trần was at it again, and upped the score to 2-0.
Leong Wan Kang then attempted to emulate the Vietnamese bruiser with a take-no-prisoners run down the middle that saw him put in a rugby still-arm on Nguyễn Phúc Nhuận at one point, but Trần Quý Ly again showed his class in goal. It was a terribly mature performance for one only in his third match as a professional, and by the way the crowd responded, his stay at DoiAnh will be a happy one.
Pompeo Bellamoli came in for Leong for the second half, but there was no improvement in Grilled's mostly non-existent attacking game, which suffered from their width more or less having gone missing. Trần Tràng nearly made it three with a naughty chip from the left, before Hoàng got his own after getting on the end of Trần Phúc Thành's marginally-deflected cross.
Trần Phúc Thành was definitely in his element, and nearly made another for Hoàng after taking Bakhtiar down in a physical tussle. There would be one more for DoiAnh, a sweet skimmer by Nguyễn Hồng Thái, before a badly-battered and likely-relieved
Rashid bin Ahmad departed two minutes from time.
