Seven-Four Split
Krotil Courage
The week's friendly had Grilled outscore Guatemalan visitors Banana FC 2015 at The Cooking Pot, as the third division club devoted themselves to an entertaining loose 3-4-3. Although Banana FC were never quite in a position to overcome the Birds, their Czech skipper Pavel Krotil was the very picture of professional engagement throughout, and had them breathing down Grilled's collective necks till the very end.
While Banana FC had been doing swimmingly in the league, friendlies had been more of a mixed bag, as evidenced by the 0-7 whitewash they had suffered at the hands of Brazil's ACeBe before this. There were indications that a repeat was on the cards, as the Birds bombed forward with impunity. The referee did his part, blowing for Nachum Eshkol's momentary holding of
Chu Xin Lee in the penalty area in the sixth minute, something that most officials would have closed an eye to.
Jérémy Tarin obliged by sending young Freddy Henríquez the wrong way.
Another penalty would be awarded some minutes after
Chirag Thevar had upped the lead with a neat header, and this time round, Julio Benítez could have few complaints after manhandling
José Luiz Velho quite egregiously, as the Brazilian tried to make his way inside. Tarin converted it with ease too.
The visitors would grab the game by its scruff after this, mostly thanks to team captain Pavel Krotil, whose midfield output was second to none. While never the tidiest of players, his physical application was above whoever the Birds threw at him, as drummed in by his complete obliteration of
Rashid bin Ahmad when careening in for a successful power header in the 27th.
Banana FC found heart from that goal, and trainee winger Alirio Hidalgo came within inches of a spectacular assist for Ibrahim Azocar on the opposite wing, after he hooked a dramatic cross in the latter's direction. Although Azocar was slow to that, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice in a row, and he burst onto another of Hidalgo's incisive passes a couple of minutes later to score.
Despite the scoreline having taken a few twists and turns to get where it was at half-time, it was probably roughly what the teams deserved, with Banana FC having done well to recover from their early disorganization. They tried a calm approach to start the second half, but lost their initial progress as
Mohammad Ramli Saliman capitalized on some excellent approach work by
Dante Tran in the 52nd minute.
Krotil would bail his team out once again, this time with a scrappy ground finish that dazed
Dan Seng, but the Birds were getting used to the visitors' new tack.
Ahmed Pećanić, who may be appearing in Grilled colours for the last time, if rumours about his prospective move are true, replied with a memorable solo goal starting from some thirty metres out. The lukewarm reception he got despite that, however, may indicate that he had ruffled some feathers.
Banana FC were proving hard to keep down despite demostrably flagging, and they would yet again reduced Grilled's lead to a single goal. Hidalgo, who will be getting some eyeballs going by how he consistently got past
Remco van der Ban on the left, caught
Jérémy Tarin napping on the ball in the 76th minute. The Swiss defender hadn't realised what had happened when Hidalgo scooted off with it, before depositing it past
Dan Seng with a sneaky cut to the near post.
Grilled didn't have much time to despair of ever pulling clear, though, as a deliberate push down the right side saw them answer near-instantly. Remco finally had his moment as he overlapped down the sidelines with
Chu Xin Lee tying up two defenders on his own, and although
Chirag Thevar got his feet mixed up for a second or two, he recovered magnificently to clip the ball between Henríquez's legs.
The day wouldn't quite be complete without a certain someone, and with the four thousand-strong crowd having chanted his name at regular intervals,
Chan Ze Han came on to a loud reception with ten minutes remaining. From his subduedness, one could guess that he had been instructed not to overexert himself, but Grilled would make it 7-4 from
Dante Tran's speculative effort anyway.
Chan demonstrated a few crowd-pleasing touches, but nothing too special, and the friendly ended soon after
Mohd Jafni Abdul Majid entered for
Jérémy Tarin.
