Anglikon Annihilation
Chong In Dreamland
Grilled's patchwork lineup barely broke a sweat against an Fc Anglikon AG side on only their second game. While the Swiss Division Eight newcomers had destroyed Bad Assez 8-0 in the league just two days ago, the Birds were something else altogether, and they fittingly crashed by the same scoreline in their introduction to the Worldwide Allgäu-Guests III tournament.
It was a whole new experience too for Grilled's 18 year-old reserve utility man
Chong Tse Chu, who finally got his name on a professional teamsheet, after three months of waiting. While this might not be an officially-sanctioned game, it was apparent that Chong was taking it very seriously indeed, as he policed his left flank with unrivalled intensity.
After that long wait, Chong took but four minutes to get his first senior goal, after an irrepresible dash along the touchline by
Pompeo Bellamoli. The Italian had been entrusted with the captain's armband for the day, and he certainly lived up to it with his actions. Conrad Grogger tried to cut out the cross, but it sailed through for Chong to nod home.
Che Harun bin Sabtu looked his age when he struggled to elude Maxime Jobert, but he did eventually land it on the crossbar.
Rinor Isufi provided stark contrast whenever he decided to turn on the afterburners, and the Anglikon defence had no answer at all, leaving him to score seemingly at will in the 18th and 20th minutes.
Chong's fairytale then continued, as he stuck about upfield, and after some not-very-calculated scrambling about, found himself in the right position for Che Harun to ping a quick pass to. Anglikon goalkeeper Matthias Munoz should probably have saved this one, which was directed more or less to him, but Chong didn't quite care about the details.
The Birds wound it down after veteran
Abdul bin Jantan got the fifth in the 26th minute, in what probably was an unspoken invocation of the mercy rule. Their opponents were certainly not about to contest this slowdown overly, though young Gökhan Erny looked frustrated at the match having turned out so differently to his debut, in which he got a brace.
Luis Alcántara logged a double swap of
Lee Lee Hao and
Leong Wan Kang for oldies Abdul and Che Harun to kick the second half off, and Leong wasted no time in putting in his usual supersub groundwork, outhustling the Anglikon backline with his constant movement. Unfortunately, his finishing was not up to par, as he couldn't find the net from a decent angle.
He was more successful as a provider, and after several near-assists, found himself in a one-on-one with Munoz. This time, he made sure with a clever backstep before rolling it across to longtime partner Bellamoli, who sauntered in for one of the easiest goals of his career.
Reserve playmaker
Nicola Vandeneynde would then find the target after some fine ball control to get within range, which was the signal for Alcántara to give
Joan Cisquell his twenty minutes on the pitch. Former Grilled skipper
Qassem Madaini, who had had little to do at rightback after he left the bombing forward to Chong, jogged off fresh as a daisy.
Isufi then completed his hat-trick with a picture-perfect header from one of
Wong Ping Shun's many crosses, which he then topped off with a yellow for unwarranted aggression; Anglikon's sole expat Jean-Philippe Didier then gave Erik Scharhörn a chance to put themselves on the scoresheet after showing Cisquell a clean pair of heels, but Scharhörn missed with
Krystian Rykowski making himself big.
