Bucked By Boronzo
Goodbye Bögengang
Domenik Bögengang never quite came close to his aspiration of a parting friendly goal, with Tanzanian Premier hosts Oronzo Boronzo not in an accommodating mood. While he was flanked by two of Grilled's greatest in
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Tian Yonghang, they themselves were well into the twilights of their own careers, and the nonstop movement that the trio would have exhibited some fifteen seasons ago, was simply not present.
Other than that, it was actually a fair exposition against the Sapphire Challenger Cup holders, who were kind enough to field several backups - Portuguese star striker João Roque Sousa Nunes had just been sold, which got fullback Martinho Castro pressed into service as an emergency forward.
Grilled were at close to full strength save for Bögengang and
Mohammad Ramli Saliman, whose bedding-in continued with today's start. He certainly looked far more comfortable than he had been at Fireworks, but then he was also up against somewhat stiffer competition.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the Birds grabbed the lead in the twelfth minute. Víctor Escoriaza, who had been bossing the Grilled strikeforce around, tried to do too much with his attempted carrying of the ball into the Grilled half. A fortuitous bounce off
Hariharan Prabhu's shin made for an outnumbered Boronzo defence, and new Player of the Season
Yuki Irie obliged with an acrobatic volley on the stretch.
Boronzo were back in business barely two minutes later, as the surged up the right side through Massimo Dorio, who beat
Low Aik Jia with no small dose of trickery. Castro occupied
Hoàng Trung Quá rushing to the near side, leaving Swiss midfielder Igor Schutz to fill in the space left behind, and convert with a strong header.
There were then a couple of promising set-piece gambits from both teams, but nothing the respective defences couldn't deal with.
Wong Ping Shun did his bid for reinstatement little good with an insipid shift on the right, however, and flirted with a dismissal with his crunching tackle on Marián Hlinický, which the Slovakian skipper definitely didn't appreciate.
The tensions subsided as swiftly as they arose, thankfully, and Boronzo seemed to be throwing Bögengang a bone with their substitutions at the start of the second half. The rather more accomplished Escoriaza and Erwan Jamet were replaced by José Tomás Nazaré and Radu Paşca, several minutes apart.
If anything, this had the opposite of the projected effect - Nazaré was if anything even more uncompromising than Escoriaza had been, and seemed to take a personal satisfaction in stymying Grilled's retiring German. The Birds were not improving at the back, and transfer-listed Dutch attacker Boris Epskamp would let rip from the centre, on the hour.
Nathan Hinson was likewise raring to outdo predecessor Jorge Peláez when he came on soon after that, and only
Wong Tian Han's acceleration off the line kept him from scoring, after Massimo Dorio split the defence in the 73rd. No matter, Igor Schutz would make it 3-1 for the home side, as Grilled reacted painfully slowly to a failed attack.
Djan Bacelar saw fit to take
Yuki Irie off for his own protection after that, with the defender moving strangely, and probably just in time as Avihu Mizrachi clattered replacement
Rashid bin Ahmad on the next Boronzo move. Rashid did nearly pull another back for Grilled a bit later, but Radu Paşca saved twice from him to see the Birds, and Bögengang, off.
