Puertuense Sent Packing
Mottl Misbehaves
Grilled would face Puerto Rico visitors Puertuense Rico FC with only ten men for most of the friendly, but that would not keep them from prevailing against the two month-old outfit. Under the same management umbrella as Italy's Roma Portuense Fc and Malaysia's Redang F.C., the fledgling team exhibited fine cohesion under head coach Kevin Soto, with a spotlight on Danish goalkeeping trainee Janus Mørch.
There would be no undue waiting this cloudy day at The Cooking Pot, as Polish veteran
Cyril Künzler took just two minutes to teach Mørch a thing or two, as he took full advantage of Emilio Santiago's overconfidence on the right. The off-balance Santiago withered before Künzler's deceptive pace, and Mørch was evidently unprepared for how easily his last defender had been breached, as he came out but not entirely convincingly.
The goal would be but secondary for once here, as it was almost instantly overshadowed by an escalating off-the-ball incident.
Prokop Mottl, playing centre forward, had been advancing in support too, but wound up being shoulder-charged by a combative Joseph Cabrero as Künzler made his final move. The act would be moot as Künzler found the net anyway, though Mottl might have had a shout at a penalty otherwise. It might have ended with that, but the riled-up Czechman would then very deliberately hook Cabrero's legs from under him, when the latter's back was turned.
Well, that was entirely unacceptable, and Romanian referee Cătălin Halic had no choice but to show Mottl a straight red card for his reprehensible conduct. Halic would review Cabrero's earlier provocation too, after appeal by several Grilled players, but let him go with a talking-to.
That didn't make the referee very popular amongst the Grilled diehards who attended, but truth be told, the dismissal merely tilted the odds a little less in favour of the Birds. Grilled's team, after all, was filled with talent who could all conceivably walk into their opponents' lineup on merit, and they would indeed hoard possession for the next twenty minutes or so, with
Neeraj Muthyala doing everything but keep his strike low, in the 24th minute.
And then, a Puertuense equalizer. They had always looked the most dangerous when one of their strikers managed to get isolated against
Chirag Thevar, and with room to run, and thus was it with Benito López once the match restarted. Thevar recovered enough to get in the way and concede a corner, which was however headed on by Cabrero for José Luis Arroyo to stab home. The fans, usually willing enough to appreciate great finishing from opponents, weren't too chuffed about Cabrero's celebrations on this occasion.
Grilled would strive to get their own back on the pitch, but Janus Mørch would put his potential on display in spades up till half-time.
Teo Chuan Yong was first to realize just how quickly the young custodian could get off his line when he was of a mind to, when he had a brilliant through ball snatched off his toes in the 27th minute. A while later,
Bernie Egan would likewise be closed down very rapidly, and be forced into putting his grounder marginally wide.
Neeraj Muthyala would leave and hand the captain's armband to
Kalle ter Berg for the second half, together with
Chirag Thevar, with
José Luiz Velho and
Dante Tran arriving in their stead. The switch did very good things for Grilled's freshness, and they would retake the lead within three minutes.
Teo Chuan Yong had been diligently seeking his first goal for the club, and it came via a very coolly-done chip, as Egan shielded Espinet aside.
A consistent stream of Grilled attacks would follow as Puertuense's fire faded a little, but sensible defending would limit the number of actual chances created. It was simply not Egan's day, as his painstakingly-crafted strike would loop onto the top of the netting, after the slightest of deflections, in the 64th minute. Eight minutes later,
Radovan Jaška tried his luck from the left wing after play was getting clogged, only for the crossbar to come to the visitors' rescue.
The Birds would finally get their third goal in the 82nd, as they piled into the Puertuense penalty area for a free-kick;
Dante Tran admittedly did nothing more than happen to be in the right place, but he was certainly going to savour the moment anyhow. Velho would then put one wide, and Ter Berg did his spotty disciplinary reputation no favours, by getting booked for petulance upon the club not receiving a corner for that. Arroyo went for the spectacular as the seconds wound down, but
Manuel Vadalà was watching out for something like that.
