Haïtien Hiding
Clermont Scare
Haiti third division challengers RC Haïtien, an offshoot of Switzerland's SSV Winterthur 04, would bear the brunt of the Birds' frustrations tonight, as the Grilled players sought to erase the memory of their disgraceful collapse on Sunday. Grilled did go one better than they suffered, with a 9-0 wipeout of the hosts, but whether it was meaningful was another matter altogether.
While most of the Birds' starting XI had not participated in that shameful affair, there was no mistaking that they nevertheless bore a chip on their shoulder over it, which was bad news for their yellow-and-blue striped opponents. RC Haïtien had, in fact, not yet made any player purchases under Czech gaffer Ondřej Čečotka, but had been gifted with an embarassment of riches at forward. Number Nine man Corentin Vernelus was their undisputed star turn at 19 years of age, and moreover on the fringes of the national youth side. Other than him, RC Haïtien had in addition Kristopher Clermont and Elison Saint-Georges, both of whom have been building a reputation nationally.
None of them would find themselves of much purpose in this particular matchup, however. The Birds would secure near-absolute midfield supremacy after a very brief scuffle, which had Haïtien running around fighting fires afterwards. The build-up to Grilled's first goal would further cost them Clermont, who jarred his knee in attempting to stop
Prokop Mottl's charge in the 13th minute. Clermont was actually willing to carry on, but Čečotka was having none of that, and in came veteran sub Florian Leroy.
Leroy could do little more to stem the bleeding, and Grilled would continue with their shooting practice. All
Bernie Egan had to do was be in the right place in the 24th minute, when he tapped
Heng Dong Chu's brilliant pass home.
Kalle ter Berg upped that with a practised looping header over Constant Occeus, who could do nothing against
Cyril Künzler's drive several minutes later either. Occeus would have his moment in the sun with a flamboyant one-handed save off
Moey Xin Seng's bullet header next, only to be beaten a fifth time by Egan's next attempt.
RC Haïtien were intent on getting at least one good try on
Louis Vara, so it seemed, and they would achieve that objective immediately after the break. Substitutes
Radovan Jaška and
José Luiz Velho had no time to acclimatize as Vernelus forced a path past the former, which won the hosts a free-kick. That was in turn played smartly sideways to Elison Saint-Georges, who however put it some yards wide of his intended post.
To the home team's credit, they would keep pace with the Birds for somewhat longer than in the first half, but would eventually run afoul of their own stamina limitations, what with Grilled knowing exactly how to tire them out.
Cyril Künzler got the scoring restarted with a corner that
Yee Jian Hui all but knocked out of Occeus' grasp, which went unnoticed by the referee. Moey would join in straight afterwards, as he combined well with Heng for the seventh.
It wasn't even that Moey was having a particularly good day, and he would make a hash of several fair opportunities before the end, although the worst miss of them all was probably Velho's atrocious balloon in the 78th minute. Künzler did finish off a scorching solo rush beforehand, and
Mateja Jeftić's conversion from the penalty spot for Čečotka's handball would complete the rout.
