Racing To The Bottom
Total Wipeout
Only one game into the second edition of the Asian Champions League unofficial friendly competition, and the Birds were already as good as out, after they suffered a 0-10 tonking at the hands of Palestine club Racing de Tona. Grilled's reserves were manifestly outclassed by their opponents' equivalent, with their young midfield crop in particular having to eat humble pie.
It was certainly difficult to make the proceedings sound interesting, given how unbalanced the contest was; the home fans enjoyed it, of course, and with Ivan Křenek and Qasim Alam Khasawneh bagging after eleven minutes, the game was as good as theirs - especially when it could well have been more.
As it was, they were merely slightly delayed. Luis Alcántara had taken the opportunity to give some of Grilled's more underplayed defenders a run-out, and from their performances, they won't be getting a serious call-up anytime soon. This went for
Yuki Irie too, with the vice-captain painfully out of his element against Aleš Adamec in the 17th minute, leading to an easy third goal.
The 4-5-1 formation didn't help either, as they were unable to cover their weaknesses by exerting attacking pressure. Mario Dominici made it 4-0 as the backline were laughably uncoordinated in attempting to spring offside, and Adamec would strike again in the 33rd minute, with veteran
Hilal Bakhtiar looking ripe for retirement.
One had to wonder why
Rashid bin Ahmad even tried to take Mario Dominici down from behind in the box, with the natural if unkind speculation being that he was after an early shower. Well, the referee held off on the booking, but Assar Alexandersson dumped the penalty in nonetheless for six.
If this were a boxing match, it would have been stopped at half-time, but unfortunately Grilled hadn't changed sports. Then again, given that they had inflicted similar damage to lower-division clubs in early Cup rounds for ages, being on the other side once in a while had its justifications. Perhaps
Remco van der Ban had that on his mind when he passed it to Arne Krog, or it would have been an epic, epic mistake.
It wouldn't even be particularly remarkable given the situation, and the Birds somehow roused themselves - every so slightly. With a comeback long off the cards, the best they could hope for was a consolation, but Hilary Krzywicki wasn't letting
Leong Wan Kang's lonely effort pass him by. He would be off a while later for the not-exactly eager
Pompeo Bellamoli, while
Yuki Irie was spared further embarassment, with
Mohd Jafni Abdul Majid replacing him.
Mohd Jafni was not exactly the guy you'd want to see headlining a defence at this point in time, though, and the nervous youngster suffered a further setback, when he lost Ivan Křenek almost immediately. Of course, the young Czech just had to score from that, with his scuffed kick deflected in exaggerated fashion over
Dan Seng. Even Seng had to see the funny side of that.
It was a mercy that there were only ten minutes remaining after that, although it was still enough for Dutch fullback Emre Serin to make Seng pick the ball out of his net twice more.
