Doling Out The Pain
Goy Triple
Bosnian fourth division leaders FC dolina slonova held nothing back as they spanked a Grilled selection 8-0 at home today, led by able former youth international Vedran Žungul in midfield. With forwards Hans Fredriksen and Mathieu Goy in particular also in form for dolina, there was nothing keeping them from running roughshod over a pitifully-slow Birds defence.
It was soon clear that the game would be decided if Žungul couldn't be contained, and despite
Mohammad Ramli Saliman's - aided by
Chan Ze Han's - best efforts, it was apparent that neither of them were the natural stoppers that the job demanded. Grilled were let off when Goy inexplicably put it wide after Numan Bozkurt's clever disguised pass after a corner, but
Krystian Rykowski would have no such luck from then on.
Grilled's ability to keep up wore thin as dolina's playmakers interchanged with delightful facility, and a succession of flowing passes left them wide open, with Fredriksen beating
Rashid bin Ahmad fair and square for the first. Two minutes later, the canny Dževdet Bečić saw his chance down the left, and made it 2-0.
The Birds looked woefully unbalanced, and ther forwards desperately trying to help out didn't make things better much.
Kalki Parvathaneni for one hadn't learnt to tackle properly, and was booked after taking all of Vidaković and none of the ball. Bečić rumbled on and caught Rykowski out with a spectacular flyer, and Mathieu Goy would then make it 4-0 by the 32nd, receiving an assist off a badly-defended free-kick.
Moey Xin Seng had long abandoned his assigned target man post as he tried to plug the leaks, and while he was mostly unsuccessful in that, he did get Fredriksen carded, after jumping in front of him for a lucky strip. The home fans didn't like what they thought was a calculated fall, but Moey was just pleased to gain whatever advantage he could.
Grilled were rather improved for the second half, with them managing to get some keep-ball going, but this promising start would peter out as dolina rediscovered their earlier style. Rykowski was a star for a while nevertheless, as he made instinctive saves from Fredriksen and Bozkurt, to maintain a clean sheet of sorts for half an hour.
It all went to pieces after Hassan Izedonmwen scrambled in from the aftermath of a chaotic corner situation in the 77th, however, and a hasty triple substitution only worsened matters. Rather than inject energy, the newcomers could barely find their positions, and Miroslav Vidaković struck in between Goy completing his hat-trick.
