Grim Dissection
No Sow No Reap
A difficult season has seen Grim Reapers Haltern II relegated from the Cameroonian II.2 despite Hannes Mellitzer's wholesale reformation of the squad in mid-season, and they would like fellow Cameroon clubs DragStar Club and AS MOWKIWA lose handily to a visiting Birds team - though they did at least score on them in return.
Atang Mangoye would not wait very long before making his first appearance in Grilled colours, but it was hard to read too deeply into what was an inconsequential diversion for both teams.
The Reapers' ,Hillbilly Moon Field would see just over four thousand turn up for the spectacle, a goodly enough crowd for the newly-recrowned national champions.
Wu Jinglong would make the trip, but was not named in the available selection, owing to his pending transfer to Italy.
Vikram Mudaliar would captain the Grilled XI alongside Kalki and Mottl in attack, with
Salah Kamel at right wing.
Gilbert Webb and
Bhavya Panigrahi were fielded at the back, amidst rumours of a possible move for
Mateja Jeftić.
The hosts' best player put out for the day would arguably be 20 year-old Slovenian fullback Viktor Smrekar as they fielded an U-20 defence, that included Omossola Oyono making his senior debut. At the other end of the age range, 38 year-old Italian journeyman Vitaliano Andreuccetti would skipper the side in midfield. Hungarian Number Eleven Szilas Ternován would be tasked to test the Birds backline with his pace, but a lack of support meant that he was left chasing shadows for most of the game.
Mellitzer was quite clearly intending this to be a trial of his young defenders, and on this, Grilled were only too happy to oblige. The Reapers youngsters hardly embarassed themselves, note, as they held the Birds off for a full forty minutes, despite yielding some two-thirds of the possession. A large part of this was admittedly down to 19 year-old goalkeeper Victor Sylvestre Meffometou, who saved two great efforts from
Sølve Lunde and
Kalki Parvathaneni in the space of five minutes; Meffometou must surely be a steal, as a free transfer from Red Snake Szczecin.
Their good fortune could not last indefinitely, though, and with the likes of Mudaliar and Kalki getting more serious, it would be 1-0 as the two combined flawlessly for the latter to tap home. The lead would be doubled a minute later, as the now-jittery Reaper defence were caught restraining
José Luiz Velho just outside the penalty area. That was a bad idea, as
Bhavya Panigrahi fired right through a poorly-organized defensive wall.
This would finally instigate a sustained reaction from the Reapers, who mounted two cracking counterattacks before the break; Ternován went first after Meffometou grabbed Mudaliar's lob, but he was led a little too far out wide by Douglas, and could only strike it wide while off-balance. Joseph-Antoine Noah went next down the left side, but Grilled's defensive duo were again too good to get past.
Half-time had Noah swap positions with Argemiro Osma on the wing, with Osma now in the more advanced role, but this frankly changed little in the way of things;
Sølve Lunde might have found the side-netting leading to Noah's attempt earlier on, but the defender-turned-midfielder for the day made no such mistake once sent through by Velho on the hour, and he shuffled it past Meffometou right as the goalkeeper committed to the dive.
Douglas Carapaica would be booked soon afterwards for his roughhousing of Andreuccetti, about which there seemed no hard feelings at least. Grilled would keep the pressure up, but would create little of note leading into their first substitution of the match - new signing
Atang Mangoye, on for
Bhavya Panigrahi. From the fistbumps exchanged all around, Mangoye has already worked his way into his teammates' hearts.
Grilled's fourth goal would come from some hard work down the left by
Toma Tamiya, who latched right back on the automatic return ball by Mudaliar, to shoot at the bottom corner. Meffometou would just about get to it, only for the rebound to spin wide to
Salah Kamel, who was coming in from the other flank. Italian trainee Johnny Lamolinara tried a sliding block, but Kamel struck it over him, and into the roof of the net.
That seemed to be it for the day, as Grilled used up their subs by bringing
Dante Tran and
Radovan Jaška in the final minute, but Omossola Oyono had other ideas. The debutant had honestly not distinguished himself overly in defence today, but what he had in spades was a willingness to run... which paid off handsomely as the Reapers rampaged up the left led by Iisakki Ritokoski. The Birds were shorthanded for once, and Oyono would keep his wits about him, to clip it past
Manuel Vadalà for 1-4.
Well, the crowd seriously enjoyed that, and from how the hosts celebrated, one might have imagined that the scoreline was reversed. This did put them in a good enough mood to cheer for
Gilbert Webb's late, late strike too, as the friendly ended on a high note.
