Harrisons Get Better
Jikke Much Liked
Barbados H.I. side harrison's cave f.c.'s second invitation for Grilled Birds to visit the Barbados would again be accepted, and as their twelve straight competitive win streak might have hinted, they weren't the same side that had lost 0-7 last season. Instead, they managed two against a respectable Birds selection, who found five goals to keep the total unchanged.
Admittedly, it wasn't as good a Birds team that showed then, but
Massoud Dob being in goal this time would have made up for a lot of that. American trainee Dominique Bynum returned for the hosts in attack, and he had a terrific day alongside new Dutch strikemate Jikke van der Hoff, all considered.
Dante Tran had earned Grilled the lead after a rough start in which
Prokop Mottl got booked, but Jikke would be there to nick Yeter Zalal's short cross to the near post in.
Technically, it was lax by Dob, who hadn't arrived as he should have. harrison's did deserve something for their endeavour, and coupled it with a full press that left the Grilled players very little time to think on the ball. It wasn't nearly enough to deny the Birds entirely, though, especially at dead balls - Mottl polished one off in the 21s minute. 34 minutes in,
Yee Jian Hui would take a shot with Guenter Flanke standing off him, and Orlando Hutchinson flubbed it despite being positioned well to save.
Dob would go off for
Dan Seng for the second half, and if this was supposed to be an encouragement for harrison's to take more risks in attacking, it didn't work out that way. The next fifteen minutes or so would see some of the most disciplined pressing of the match, which only tamped down after
Chirag Thevar lobbed Hutchinson in the 63rd. It didn't look like Thevar meant to do that, but he'll take it.
Grilled weren't all that hot either really, and it was left to
Jérémy Tarin to make it 5-1 from a decent free-kick. There was a bit of a mix-up when
Kohei Okuya entered for
Mohd Jafni Abdul Majid in the 80th minute, which allowed Dominique Bynum to avoid offside and score. Tarin tried protesting, only to be immediately carded by Rodrigo Almanza for his pains.
