Caracol Canned
Triple Double
Grilled Birds returned to Kyrgyzstan on friendly duty for the first time in some 37 seasons, and they achieved exactly the 8-1 scoreline from their match against Kaganat then - only the Birds weren't on the receiving end now. Their unfortunate victims were the freshly-formed Caracol Bears, an affiliate of established French side Real Pépito that had just developed out of former amateur side RUOR NAZAR. The Bears had begun with a bang, winning their first official league game 9-0 against troubled kyz, but recent weeks have brought them back to earth.
Danish gaffer Knud-Erik Hemmingsen had been cautious with the pursestrings thus far, having brought in but three budget signings, and of these Mexican trainee goalkeeper Victoriano Olvera has already been moved on to Italian eighth division club SCOLOPI. This was probably due to French aspirant Michaël Cuvelier having established himself as first choice between the posts, and it was in this capacity that he started against the Birds.
Cuvelier would definitely get his fill of practice, the soggy pitch notwithstanding, as Grilled boasted of a deceptively strong midfield. Seven minutes into the game,
Kalki Parvathaneni would sprint around Beken Ilyaz Uulu on his outside, to slide it across for
Moey Xin Seng to put in. That was one of the most basic combinations, but magnificently-worked.
Kalki was certainly not sparing his legs, perhaps letting off steam after somehow ending up dry against ~Pollen~ on Sunday, and his teammates were only too happy to let him do most of the lifting. Kalki was maybe a bit too selfish when he put it into the side-netting rather than square it for any number of his fellows in the 14th, but he would come good six minutes later by simply putting his foot hard through the ball.
The hosts were not completely helpless, and their right flank produced something nice after 36 minutes, with Islam Shamilov and Rustan Munarbekov working together to set the latter up with a half-chance. That was the high point of the half for them by far, however, and it would be 5-0 Grilled by the break, with
Prokop Mottl,
Moey Xin Seng and then
Chan Ze Han firing them home.
Moey would be denied his chance at a hat-trick, as he was subbed off for
José Luiz Velho after the break, with
Yuta Nakakita taking over as captain. The 42 year-old Hemmingsen had been mostly a non-entity in midfield as a player for Caracol Bears, but there was something to be said for his coaching abilities, as his Bears restarted in much tighter shape. That wouldn't save them against an inspired
Islom Davlatov, however, as the Uzbek attacker exhibited an incredible predatory sense to poach twice.
The Bears would finally get the consolation strike that they had been seeking in the 66th minute.
Bernie Egan's near-miss would be turned into a speedy direct counterattack spearheaded by Ilya Domashnev, who then found Kochkorbai Mirbek Uulu with a fine through pass, but Kochkorbai swung it across
Eren Serpin's goal. Not to worry, they had the numbers up, and Kuttukaly Arslan Uulu ultimately found the net after bringing it back inside from the left. The small but passionate home crowd rose to their feet at that, their price of admission fulfilled.
Vikram Mudaliar's return to Grilled's first-choice starting lineup was a work in progress, going by how he went wrong with an easy lob in the 69th, but there would be one last goal coming after
Yuki Irie's belated entrance towards the end.
Chan Ze Han slipped through in injury time with his famed tenacity, and scrambled it in despite being upended by Kuttukaly in the process.
