Starstruck
Vive Vujanović
Former Serbian Emerald Challenger Cup winners All*Star Utd taught Grilled's second team a lesson today at The Cooking Pot, driven by the excellence of their well-oiled midfield. Stefan Marinković, Strahinja Jolačić and Julio Iturrieta were seen-it-all campaigners who knew exactly how to click, and despite the indifferent quality of their supporting cast, it was enough to flatten the Birds' more-balanced lineup.
Once again, the weather didn't cooperate, and the groundskeeper's work was undone by a flash shower half and hour before the start. It definitely didn't benefit more-skilful dribblers like
Prokop Mottl, who has been outspoken about clarifying his future with the squad. From how badly he fared against the constant flank-switching of ex-Angolan international winger Mário Mourinho, however, he has a lot to do in that respect.
All*Star would exhibit an almost-ridiculous tendency to attack down the left, to Mottl's discomfiture, but it probably wasn't personal - the other flank had become completely waterlogged. The effectively-reduced pitch created plenty of unnatural congestion, and the visitors found themselves far more at home with the tight spaces. Jolačić would open in the 16th minute, crashing an inch-perfect shot off the base of the goalpost.
Along with the compression came much contact, probably not all of it accidental. The canny Jolačić would be caught pulling on
Mohammad Ramli Saliman's shirt for a second too long. He accepted the booking with relative grace, and his team soon found themselves up by another two goals, taken by homegrown striker Andrija Vujanović. In between,
Iman Eshrafi took Novak Barović down hard, but All*Star's academy trainee took it in his stride.
Referee Mircea Cârstea could hardly let Eshrafi off for that, and after
Remco van der Ban hit the woodwork with a speculative try, Barović confirmed that he was well with a rampage inside to score in the 34th. Petar Nikolić then made it 0-5 for the half with a nice chip over
Dan Seng, and it would have been worse, had Mourinho not gone off the boil after his initial heroics.
The first forty-five was certainly a deflating experience for the Grilled kids, after a similar spanking last midweek. Assistant coach Luis Alcántara decided to go hands-off after that, and surprisingly, the side were far more threatening all of a sudden.
Islom Davlatov stepped up to dictate terms, and after a period of more competition in the middle, he drilled a pass through to
Chu Xin Lee, who beat Liechtenstein reserve goalkeeper Lorenz Schwarzenegger on the first go.
Grilled were even improving steadily as the game wore on, and there came a point when they were actually pushing their opponents consistently back - though how much of this was simply a satisfied All*Star taking it easy, was hard to tell. Whatever the case, the Birds would pull another back in the 69th minute through
José Luiz Velho, with the visitors proving less than outstanding on defence.
A comeback remained seemingly out of reach though, and All*Star turned the tide soon after
Remco van der Ban was subbed off for
Dante Tran. It was definitely not the fault of the newcomer that Petar Nikolić made it 2-6, as their approach on that was simply flawless; 84 minutes in, Vujanović would complete his hat-trick with a flashy hit in mid-air.
Leong Wan Kang and
Chirag Thevar were given their minutes after that, with the former nearly creating a goal for
Iman Eshrafi, only for Džemo Fatić to inadvertently block it with his face. Strahinja Jolačić would then round off the scoring as he had begun it, after a tired
Jérémy Tarin lost his footing trying to turn around.
