Norge Klubbing
Olso Rans
Hattrick International side Olaf Ryes Ballklub, affectionately referred to as ORB by their supporters, outdid their Grilled visitors with two goals in the last ten minutes at Olaf Ryes Plass. It was largely staid as ORB insisted on a safety-first approach, but it did evidently pay off in due time, after the Birds had tired themselves out.
35 year-old
Leong Wan Kang was named in the starting frontline alongside Davlatov and Velho, but truth be told, he wouldn't quite deserve his place after an utterly uninspiring shift. He seldom even got to bother Eusébio Giroto, and transitioned to high-percentage but ultimately pointless square passes after a bit.
ORB's swarming defence made the match extremely choppy, and the game proceeded as a disjointed series of stop-and-start phases, not helped by an inexperienced Birds midfield.
Iman Eshrafi's unexpected hit to
Islom Davlatov in the 23rd minute made it not a total loss, though with a hint of simulation on the Uzbek striker's end. No matter, as
Jérémy Tarin put it in on the rebound, off Sverre Kvalsund.
That was by far the high point for either team in this half, with only
Hoàng Trung Quá's random blast from deep about ten minutes later, coming anywhere close in significance. Eshrafi himself was having trouble beating Tuomas Ikkala after that earlier piece of quick thinking, and he would soon be booked for tripping the Finn from behind out of frustration.
With little happening at the back for Grilled,
Rashid bin Ahmad probably thought that he had an easy day ahead of him, after replacing Hoàng at half-time. He would however get called into action a few times as ORB began to break irregularly via Kim Omland, and they nearly even equalised from Giroto's big header from Benjamin Tokvam's center in the 54th.
Dan Seng sprang into action, but it was headed wide anyway.
Still, Grilled were doing a ton of running for next to no reward, with ORB's back five having held firmly save for the penalty incident.
Chan Ze Han attempted to spark things in his capacity as acting skipper, but his several hopeful dribbles were swallowed whole by the defenders, usually before a good outlet presented himself.
He was definitely not the only one to fail, as
Islom Davlatov found Giroto quite uncompromising too. In the process of losing out in an aerial duel in the 67th minute, Davlatov kneed his Portuguese marker square in the back, and the referee couldn't just let that go. Giroto took it quite well concerning, which was of course of little consolation to Davlatov.
Parvathaneni had his chance to put it away denied by Kvalsund in style seventy-seven minutes in, and then it was the hosts' turn to shine. Teenaged Finn Talhaug had stuck to doggedly trailing
Neeraj Muthyala for the bulk of the day, despite Muthyala never quite hitting his highs. Talhaug had a good engine on him too, and pulled away decisively on the left, before swinging in a textbook winger's cross, that Omland soared to for 1-1.
That was it for a grimacing
Hovaness Noubaryan, who threw
Remco van der Ban on for Tarin, in a clear effort to get the Birds back going. This had the opposite of the intended effect if anything, however, as ORB turned the tables. Ikkala weaved his way slowly from his own half, with Grilled putting up coverage unconvincingly. Then, a sudden spurt of acceleration happened, followed by a peach of a shot to the top right corner.
Celebrations were slightly muted after Omland hurt himself vaulting over an advertising board in the wake of the goal hero, and the hardworking forward would have to hobble off deflated. Per Jørgen Pettersen was an able direct replacement for ORB, as it went, and they saw the last five minutes out smoothly.
