Saints Marinated
Lunde Lambasted
The Birds might have proven themselves against Saint Marino III.4 hosts Saint-Marin-United, but they could be rightly accused of abusing their hospitality too, due to the injuries inflicted on Dutch midfielder Floyd Boll, as well as teenaged trainee Danilo Ceccoli. Definitely, it was not clear whether the occasion called for such an aggressive attitude, although this did at least hint that Grilled were taking nothing for granted.
Saint-Marin-United were not doing badly at all, having promoted from Division Four in their first full season, and just finished second in the league under Polish head coach Maciej Kaptur's leadership - this despite the high-profile exits of former stars Armando Muete and Vadim Galchenko. The supporters would be reassured by Kaptur's swooping for several big names just yesterday and today, with the ink barely dried on new record signing, Spanish striker Manuel Alemán.
None of Alemán or fellow newcomers - Italian goalie Vittorio Pancioni or French fullback Florian Canet - made the team today, though, which might have been for the best. 22 year-old wide man Vittorio Stilli was probably the best of the lot that Saint-Marin-United put out. Grilled would cut them a little slack with
Radovan Jaška at centre forward, but with new Number Eight
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud intending to impress in his first official appearance for the club, the Saints were never going to have it too easy.
Moey Xin Seng's third minute opener was then not too far from expectations, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Salah Kamel plotting very cleverly on the preceding free-kick, to sneakily release Moey. It soon looked as if the Saints were getting more than they had figured on, however, with their players getting clattered all over. Kaptur would complain to the fourth official several times, but to no apparent effect.
Matters would soon come to a head, quite literally as Boll went up for a header near the touchline, only to be laid out by
Sølve Lunde. Unbeknownst to Lunde, Boll was carrying a slight concussed from his short run-out against Maniitsoq on Sunday, and had the bad fortune to land heavily on his neck and head here. The Saints players threatened to swarm Lunde as Boll stayed motionless, before the gravity of the injury became apparent. Fortunately, the stricken winger would regain consciousness before being stretchered off, upon which Greek referee Yiannis Mimidis sent Lunde packing too.
It was perhaps a relief for Lunde in a way, not that the Birds missed him too much anyway, given the home side's nearly non-existent attack. Francesco Boi was a definite upgrade, but not nearly enough to make the difference.
Chan Ze Han would feed on
Heng Dong Chu's laser-guided cross in the 35th, before having his final ball cleared at the last second, some two minutes later; that brought Saint-Marin-United's only chance of the match, with Cosimo Spasiano nearly embarassing
Jānis Salmiņš with a good lob from distance, before Stilli rushed his shot on the rebound.
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud had shown some neat touches here and there in midfield, but had not exactly made many waves. That was going to change in the 39th minute, as he made a very smooth exchange with a retreating Moey, before swinging it diagonally across Sabino Pellini... right into the far top corner. This display of exceptional class would be followed by an assist for
Radovan Jaška, which made the finish only too easy.
The darker side of Grilled's mastery would emerge again, unfortunately, as
Douglas Carapaica went about his direct run a little too strongly, and sent the much-smaller Ceccoli flying en route to rattling the crossbar. To be fair, this probably wasn't a foul, but the home faithful weren't seeing it as such, not after Ceccoli had to hobble off too. The reception they gave the Birds at the end of the half was markedly changed from their welcome.
Giancarlo Gasbarra was again a clear upgrade over his predecessor, that said, and the homegrown midfielder would be a major factor in Grilled's relatively-muzzled engine, in the second half. He would chase
Chan Ze Han down to deny him a clear shot in the 69th minute, and considering Chan's earlier dipping header getting spectacularly saved by Pellini, he could well have had a hat-trick.
Johnnie Sansoni was sticking to Chan like glue, though, and the responsibility for goals would have to be picked up by his teammates. One of those would be
Chu Xin Lee, who was playing right wing today. This didn't preclude him from rotating places with
Salah Kamel, and he would find himself unguarded about eighteen-odd yards out with the goal straight ahead, in the 77th minute. This was just begging for a go, and Chu would get it on target for 5-0.
Heng Dong Chu would put Grilled further up from another well-worked indirect free-kick a couple of minutes later, which may give this form additional consideration, especially given that the team's top specialists appear not to be confirmed starters any longer.
Gilbert Webb, one of them, would have not much to do after relieving Douglas with five minutes left, as did
Atang Mangoye after he came on for Heng.
