Moey Sinks V.F.C.
Captain Comeback
It was Grilled's first visit to Honduras in 44 seasons, and
Moey Xin Seng would mark it with a first-half hat-trick, in a comprehensive 5-0 result. While the Birds could not sustain their scoring chops into the second half, there could hardly have been anything left to prove by then.
A spin-off of Portugal's RamosTeam, New V.F.C. have already achieved what their parent could not, which is to win a national-level trophy in the Copa Consolación Peor es nada. Their league fortunes have been relatively variable, however, with their previous three trips to Division Two ending in a single season, although they have invariably won their leagues a division down. This pattern seems to be repeating again, with them headed for another qualification battle.
A drawn-out clear-out has seen under-fire head coach Yan Manuel pin his hopes on the combined S$15 million capture of midfielders Nolan Bruyère and Paolo Saccone, who debuted just over a week ago. Understandably, neither would be risked in today's friendly, with Italian veteran frontman Valerio Giordano being Manuel's main concession to the occasion. Other than that, it was left to Chilean Number Seven Ignacio Varletta, to try and make things happen from the right wing.
Very little of the sort happened as Grilled were effectively uncontested in midfield, helped by
Salah Kamel making his official starting debut for the club. He would perform his duties conscientiously, if leaning rather to the conservative side, which led to the strange side of
Bhavya Panigrahi and
Gilbert Webb posing as attacking midfielders. Not that it mattered overly, with all the possession that the Birds maintained.
There was soon no doubt about what the game would be like, as Grilled shifted into attacking practice mode, though it would take some guile from
Chu Xin Lee and
José Luiz Velho to prise V.F.C. apart for the first time. Chu would take both defenders with him as he convincingly sold an exchange, leaving Velho to beat the remaining defender to score. That done with,
Moey Xin Seng would burst through for the first of his three goals on the very next offensive, and Webb then drew a top-drawer save from young goalkeeper Américo Monagas next.
It was a tough outing indeed for Alirio Patruno, who had contributed as much as he could, and one had to sympathize with him for not giving the ball up in the 20th minute, following what seemed like a bad call from designated referee Grégory Mercier. That got him a direct yellow card, before saner heads amongst his teammates prevailed.
Moey would go on to complete his treble with a minumum of fuss. While his dip in form against the Automats was unmissable, it remained that he had started all but one of Grilled's competitive fixtures thus far this season, and a Moey at two-thirds capacity was a threat to most teams regardless. V.F.C.'s reserves definitely qualified as one of those, as they could do nothing as the Grilled skipper bypassed Leonardo Henrique with a flick on the turn, before drilling it right past Monagas.
His hat-trick would be completed five minutes later, as he lobbed Monagas after Panigrahi had invited him to, with a bouncing through pass just begging to be latched upon. The V.F.C. trainees will certainly have plenty of post-game remedials to go over, as Marcos Francheschi then forgot where
Prokop Mottl was, when he went after Velho instead. That made it 5-0 by the 36th minute, and made for a self-deprecatory chant by the good-humoured home fans.
The Birds would operate at a somewhat reduced intensity for the remainder of the friendly, with a long barren patch after Mottl's strike. Moey and Kamel were about the only ones to still take the match deadly seriously, at least until Noubaryan motioned unmistakeably from the sidelines for them to take it down a notch, rather than risk unnecessary injury.
Most of the second-half action would end up clustered around the seventieth minute, and began with Velho's close shave from a central position, after the hosts had crowded their own penalty area. The corner would be worked into a free-kick, and thence into a goalmouth melee and a succession of attempts from the left side, but V.F.C. would eventually hold the siege off.
There would be a final flurry of activity in injury time, with Mottl appearing to have found a sixth, only for Fernando Beltrán to slide it off the goal-line with Monagas grounded. Varletta's moment had finally arrived, as he surged down Grilled's abandoned right flank, to put in a cross aimed at Valerio Giordano. Unfortunately for the home supporters,
Gilbert Webb would step up and clear it before it ever got to the striker.
