Kinshasa Tuning
Prokop Treble
Grilled Birds' destination today would be the Congo, where they played Division Two hosts Royal Blue Kinshasa 04 at the Stade Tata Eddy. A club with links to Germany's Königsblau 04 and Greece's FC (S)CHALKIDIKI 04, Kinshasa have had a shorter history than either, with their only silverware thus far being the Challenge Stijn Martini tournament in its second season. Romanian player-coach Gheorghe Toma had branded the team as a work in progress, and held little back in what would be his own testimonial before retirement.
The 53 year-old had not intended to take to the field himself, but would enter the fray by acclamation, after star fullback Ralf Bögli strained his right knee in the 18th minute. Kinshasa had exhibited good fight before that, with trainee Chrispin Mupanga perhaps taking it a bit too seriously, in denying Grilled a quick throw-in by holding on to the ball. No hard feelings on that, though, especially after he got booked for the minor hold-up, and Frédéric Poidevin would eventually fire the first broadside soon after Bögli's departure.
The opener belonged to the Birds in the return surge, as
Cyril Künzler wasn't about to grant Toma much mercy in this right-sided mismatch. The Pole would simply overrun him, before sliding it inside for
Prokop Mottl's easy finish.
The home team showed good resilience to ride the ensuing waves of attacks out, and it was
Radovan Jaška's turn to be carded, for a dangerous-looking takedown of Patrik Oravecz in midfield. All considered, it was a valiant effort against a Grilled selection of four first-teamers, though Kalki, Heng, Künzler and Panigrahi could probably all be considered to be on the fringes at the moment.
If
Manuel Vadalà was hoping for a low-difficulty clean sheet after what had been a pretty bad attempt at standing in for
Massoud Dob, however, he wasn't about to get it. Kinshasa would equalize in the 37th minute, with Kévin Thomassin - starting only the second game of his professional career - cleverly watching for a reckless advance by a complacent Künzler. That left him acres of space to work with, and senior forward Ricky Mubesala slid in hard at the near post to convert.
That was as far as it got for Kinshasa, however, as Grilled swiftly raced to a 4-1 lead by half-time. The first two came from set-pieces, with
Yuta Nakakita reacting fastest to
Cyril Künzler's signal in the 38th minute. Some shirt-pulling in the box then won Grilled a penalty that
Bhavya Panigrahi put away, and Künzler then scored from open play. Kinshasa were not exactly happy at the Birds not stopping play for the downed Jérémie Lusinga for that, and Panigrahi's booking for targeting the forward a second time would be received with much approval by their supporters.
Kinshasa would never hit their prior heights in the second half, which would develop into a one-sided smackdown.
Yuta Nakakita would come off for
Jérémy Tarin, not that either had all that much to do in defence.
Vikram Mudaliar assumed the captaincy, but while he retained much of his raw pace about him, his decline in form had been stark, and has already probably cost him a shot at the S-League Golden Boot.
No matter, Kinshasa were still here for the taking, and
Kalki Parvathaneni got the ball rolling with an incredible over-the-head kick in the 56th minute. Kalki was definitely putting in an excellent shift, and if he continues making plays such as that which released
Yee Jian Hui for Grilled's sixth goal,
Eren Serpin must be seriously drawn to consider him as one of the first names on the teamsheet.
This day would be
Prokop Mottl's, still, as the Czech reserve got his hat-trick by the 72nd minute with excellently-timed drives beyond Kostas Valianatos, before being subbed off for
Dante Tran in the 80th. The spate of substitutions towards the end had Ramzi Moubayed add on nearly six minutes of extra time, in which Yee made full use of, for a second goal for himself.
