Giants Gassed
Tarin Tease
Grilled recovered somewhat with their 4-1 friendly win in Germany against H.I. Division Three team Munich Giants, as
Hovaness Noubaryan was left with something of a selection headache after a vibrant forward line display. The party began as early as the third minute, when
Kalki Parvathaneni slithered his way past Maximilian Schrötter to get the tip of his boot to a flick-on. The lob ultimately brushed the top of the crossbar, but one could sense that it would be a long day for the hosts.
And so it was, though the Giants could actually have taken the lead in the 17th minute, when homegrown right winger Pascal Zethofer sent
Bilal Mohammad Harun crashing into
Yuki Irie with a sensational crossover.
Krystian Rykowski would spare Bilal the blushes then with a calm stop.
That came entirely against the run of play, it had to be said, and normal service was resumed when
José Luiz Velho half-volleyed it off the post, barely five minutes later. Giants custodian Luka Tešić was working overtime as it was, and had to scramble to cut
Chu Xin Lee's visionary run off in the 25th.
Moey Xin Seng, who had been undergoing something of a down period, vented off steam with a questionable off-the-ball quarrel and got booked, but Tarin reduced the pressure in a timely manner with his cool sidefooted finish, coming up the middle.
It was just as well, with
Kalki Parvathaneni having lost his cool with a violent barge on Richard Übach just after the ball went in. There would be some chat between the match officials as they decided whether Tarin's goal should still stand, which was settled in the affirmative; Kalki would still receive a yellow card, though it didn't stop him from playing Chu through right afterwards, leading the the Munich woodwork getting hit for the third time.
Yuki Irie and
Hoàng Trung Quá left at half-time having spent most of their tenure near the half-way line, with
Mohd Jafni Abdul Majid and
Remco van der Ban replacing them. The Giants started out more confidently than they had, with 18 year-old skipper Reiner Tränke growing into his role, and slowing play down intelligently. Unfortunately, he would try to do too much in the 66th minute, and Bilal was able to push through on the right. That advance was stemmed, but it did enough for
Neeraj Muthyala to make it two.
Munich Giants were searching for an answer, and after Bilal came within inches of scorching the roof of the net in the 71st minute, they settled on rotating Zethofer into defence, with Hauke-Klaus Patzold moving out to right wing. That looked to have backfired when
Islom Davlatov promptly ran at Zethofer before drilling the 3-0 goal in.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for the hosts, as they found the consolation that they had been looking for, albeit right after ilal Mohammad Harun had gone off for
Chirag Thevar. And who would it be but Zethofer, reprising the attacking job that he had just laid down, to explode past Grilled's centrebacks to make it?
Two more seemed out of reach for the hosts despite that, and their task became nigh-impossible when Übach felled Muthyala on the edge of the penalty area, after tracking his run for some twenty yards. Manuel Ibatici judged that while the push had been effectuated some distance outside, Muthyala had fought against it until he was in. That bit of legalese done with,
Jérémy Tarin stepped up, and while Tešić got a foot to the shot, it wasn't enough to keep it out.
