Cao Chucks Crontomio
Coming into Himself
Cao Wai-Kin stepped out of the absent Martinsson's shadow to assert himself against Division Five side Crontomio in a western derby, farming four goals in a rather one-sided contest. Crontomio had already slain a respected team, footballclub, two divisions above them in the previous round, but Grilled was a little too big for them to bite off.
Crontomio Arena was packed to the eaves early, and the home side in their light-blue/dark-blue stripes had Maarten van Beek and Juan Antonio Mirete make some torching runs down the flanks. Grilled's defence had to work to pick them up, until Wai-Kin seized the initiative with a stylish off-balance lob that caught Polish goalie Orest Przedpelski off his line.
A combination of Grilled slackening off and Crontomio defending feverishly cut the strikers from sight of goal, and had Kek-Tjiang not been fielded it might have been become sticky later on. Alcántara was captain and did the shouting, but Kek-Tjiang contributed in his own passionate way, constantly troubling his opposing wingback with powerful if straightforward runs.
Ulf Hjortlind came back from an illegal position just in time to control a late cross from that side, then tapped it to Borup, who returned it with alarcity. Now free, Hjortlind whacked the bouncing pass at the far top corner, and though it lost steam and dropped in at the bottom he could not have been unhappy at all.
Han Kok was next to have a go as Crontomio backpedalled, but again wilted with the goal looming as he swiped his attempt miserably wide. Wai-Kin gave the youngster a tip or two as he clinically finished off his first hat-trick for Grilled in the next three minutes with basic placement to the corners of the goalmouth.
Wai-Kin was all over the place throughout the second half, but could only snatch one more goal as Kek-Tjiang winged his way into the area and struck a low shot that the striker helped inside. He had several notable chances which went begging, missing by a foot or two each time.
The last goal was left to fullback
Fabian Bona, who has relished venturing up of late. With teammates all around him in the 85th minute, he opted instead to go it himself and threaded his way through the unprepared home defence. The goal was at his mercy as he lifted a cheeky ball over Przedpelski to score for the third consecutive match.
