Quitting In Style
Kalkilated Effort
Grilled bowed out of the Asian Championes League tournament at the group stage with a hefty win at least, defeating Bruneian third division club Cataquita Tutong by seven goals to two. This dead rubber match was booked for storied venue The Cage, home of premier Johor side Skudai Tiger CF, and this probably helped to attract a larger contingent of Birds fans than usual, to cross the Causeway.
This number could have been even greater, had the fans expected fair tidings, which given the reserves' recent record seemed dicey. Cataquita had been going through a rough patch too, however, and had lost their latest five friendlies coming into this game by big margins. And, as it turned out, today would be no different for the nominal visitors.
The reason for that wasn't hard to discern, as it quickly became apparent that apart from Cataquita's forward trio, the remainder of their team was mostly filler, to put it bluntly. All Grilled had to do was to keep connecting passes to a minimum, which with
Rashid bin Ahmad on call, was not beyond them. With that settled, it was a matter of maintaining the attacking, and
Ahmed Pećanić would open the scoring after six minutes, off
Prokop Mottl peeling to the left.
Cataquita barely reacted to that, perhaps having gotten used to falling behind. The debuting Wahit bin Hj Jais then got several crucial interceptions in through sheer graft, but that would only slow Grilled's extending of the lead.
Kalki Parvathaneni's lackluster attitude in training had been making the rounds, but the Indian trainee was a completely changed man today. One of Grilled's hardest workers, he had nearly created a couple of goals, before heading
Christopher Mauget's cross in by himself in the 21st.
If Cataquita's travelling diehards were beginning to get a familiar sinking feeling, it was well justified. Only some serious loss of nerve from
Dante Tran saved sweeper Ivan Newham from having to be responsible for serving it up on a plate, but there was no help for the Aussie five minutes later, when he bumped into Parvathaneni. Kalki made the most of the contact, and
Jérémy Tarin calmly put the penalty past Jerzy Bojańczyk.
Kalki Parvathaneni was going at full throttle now, and none of the Cataquita defenders could keep up with him, when he broke through to make it 4-0 on the half-hour. Luis Alcántara was seen nodding with satisfaction on the sidelines as Kalki celebrated his second goal, which should help his case for reinstatement into the first team.
Dante Tran may have to wait, however, as he followed up a generally poor display with a needless yellow card for petulance.
Tran's day would get better, but although he began to exhibit better citizenship in the second half, his productivity still left much to be desired. 57 minutes in,
Christopher Mauget did his bit by curling a low ball around Finnish wingback Sulho Markovaara. It landed right where Tran wanted it, but he then wrapped his foot awkwardly over his shot, and sent it bouncing miserably off-target.
Jérémy Tarin flighting a beauty into the roof of the next several minutes later only heightened the contrast between them, but Tran would at least have the excuse of having won that free-kick. Bojańczyk's heart was clearly not in the game by now, and he could hardly be blamed for that, with his teammates assembling a quite atrocious wall that only gave false assurance.
There was a real sense of deja vu as Cataquita resorted to packing their penalty box increasingly tightly, but that wouldn't keep
Kalki Parvathaneni from completing a deserved hat-trick in the 67th minute. Finding room where there seemed to be none, he dribbled elegantly across goal, before slotting it home right before Dulcínio Sá put in his tackle.
The Birds had their guard totally down by now, and Cataquita managed to grab one back straight from the restart, with Grilled's defence missing in action. Despite that,
Rashid bin Ahmad managed to apply enough pressure to head Paolo Osolo away from goal, but he hadn't counted on Markovaara flying up the right side. Osolo made the right choice in giving the ball to the Finn, who didn't slow before clipping it past
Krystian Rykowski.
Lightning would shortly after strike twice, as a supposedly-neutered Cataquita team derived courage from Markovaara's deed. There was a newfound vigour on their part as they contested for possesion, and although there was an element of luck in
Ahmed Pećanić's fine strike coming back off the bar, what happened next was all their own work. Thai striker Himalai Thongtat led the line with a brutally direct run, and it opened enough space for Osolo to get his finish off.
Cataquita rightly figured that they might as well go for broke, but third time was not the charm, as their move collapsed a small ways into the Grilled half.
Iman Eshrafi, who had come away with the ball, impressed with an accurate delivery to Mauget on the right touchline, and the French skipper got yet another assist with his finding of
José Luiz Velho.
There was some showboating after that by a couple of the Grilled guys, including the excellent
Kalki Parvathaneni, but it was all in good fun; Cataquita didn't let them get away with it for too long anyhow, and after
Kohei Okuya and
Chong Tse Chu got a few minutes' gametime, referee Josep Pujol brought the match to a prompt close.
