Sailors' Clock Cleaned
Yeesy Does It
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines startups salt whistle bay sailors might have lost against the Birds, but the months-old club did at least hit back with a consolation goal, during the one-sided smackdown. Formed by the same management as Belgium's RSCedA, they will hope to be more long-loved than their Curaçao predecessors RSCedB, who were abandoned despite a Division Four trophy under their belt.
As to that, the Sailors have at least made something of a name for themselves in the Mayreau region, despite young Estonian gaffer Peeter Nõmme having made relatively few additions to the original homegrown squad raised; indeed, his record signing - 38 year-old Spanish playmaker Guntademaro Gómez de la Blanca - cost just S$120000, and may have already played his final match, after sustaining a severe concussion against III.14 leaders Beach Lounging Saints F.C. earlier this month.
It was a barebones unit that was led out here by senior striker Alvin Cover, and while the Birds had saved most of their biggest draws, the gap between the starters was well evident.
Salah Kamel, who had been left out of Sunday's walkover, was raring to go as the centrepiece of a mixed lineup.
Vikram Mudaliar was arguably the only other first-teamer here, with wingers
Heng Dong Chu and
Cyril Künzler probably firmly pigeonholed as rotation options.
Winston Martin was definitely on the defensive against Heng all the while, as the Grilled left winger felt at liberty to parade his full array of dribbling skills, but there was not stopping Heng from feeding his forwards almost at will in the early going.
Leonard Nguyen misread what would have been a sitter in the twelth minute, had he simply made his move a second quicker, but he would fire past Hyron Dennis undeterred some six minutes on.
A flood of goals followed in the next several minutes, beginning with
Yuta Nakakita, who looped one over Dennis from Künzler's searching cross.
Yee Jian Hui, starting in left attack today, then sent some hearts racing, with an audacious advance against Aleksi Hukka to deposit a third.
Heng Dong Chu went it himself for the next one, Dennis made a huge save off Yuta's 26th minute header, and Yee would then round the scoring off for the half due to a distributional mistake from the hosts, straight after
Radovan Jaška's booking in the 32nd minute.
Yuta Nakakita would be replaced with
Jérémy Tarin in Grilled's first change for the next half, with
Vikram Mudaliar taking over the captaincy, and with the near-impassable
Mateja Jeftić also leaving for
Chirag Thevar, the Sailors must have had fancied their chances, even just a little. They did, as a matter of fact, and pushed up like they had not done before. Marlon Gaskin got through on the left with Greek forward Kostas Togkas tactically getting in Thevar's way, and Gaskin wouldn't disappoint, as he slotted it neatly past
Louis Vara.
That would be all the hosts got, though, and they would soon be reduced to ten men despite no real fault on their part, after Brazilian trainee Everaldo Banheira was forced to retire for the day with a crocked right knee. The Birds weren't about to be as charitable, not least substitute
Jérémy Tarin, who pulled no punches with a fierce free-kick take right through the defensive wall, for 6-1.
There were no further attempts by the Sailors after this brief flash of promise, as Grilled finished the game with two more goals - and pretty nice ones they were too - by Mudaliar and
Prokop Mottl; Dennis for one could leave with his head held higher, as he blocked another certain-looking effort from Mottl, and then did enough to buy Lionel Harper time to position himself on the goalline, against a Tarin attempt.
