Bayern Battering
Andrews Attention
Hosts Bayern Kingstown of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines might have gone down 0-6 in today's friendly to the Birds, but the II.1 challengers were not about to allow Grilled to go home unscathed. Both
Dante Tran and
Toma Tamiya would leave with aching memories after being roughed out during the match, though given that neither are anywhere next Grilled's starters, this should not cause undue concern amongst the coaching staff.
Three successive runners-up finishes in Division Two have led Eduard Hanzel's Bayern to be somewhat impatient at attaining promotion, with the former Slovakian international striker pitching in with some hardworking performances of his own. They remain a point off Grenadine Ackee Cats FC at the top, but this was hardly an insurmountable barrier. Today would not be occasion for them to overexert themselves, however, as Hanzel's second-string picks included four players - Dwight Andrews, James Potter, Calvin Wilhellam and Sean Rodriguez - making just their second or third appearance for the club.
The Birds were hardly taking it overly seriously either, although they did start the likes of
Vikram Mudaliar,
Sølve Lunde and
Bhavya Panigrahi, all of whom had missed out on league competition on Sunday. The extent to which they were taking it easy could be observed by third-choice goalie
Cameron Law playing sweeper, along a host of rare starters. Bayern should really have taken full advantage with their best opportunity of the game in the fourth minute, when Andrews fed Leon Antoine just five yards out, after a nicely-worked short corner. The midfielder would send it off the outside of the post with
Manuel Vadalà in no position to stop it, alas for the home team.
That was as close as Bayern would come for the remainder of the match, a tireless performance by Andrews aside. Hanzel could not be accused of not having drilled them well, that said, and there would be plenty of spirited hassling from their end, even if they were unable to do much with the ball themselves. A free-kick would be awarded after
Dante Tran had been sent sprawling in the 26th minute, and Panigrahi would curl it nicely over the wall, and past trainee keeper Calvin Wilhellam.
Tran elected not to continue after testing his weight on his left ankle, however, which had 39 year-old coach-in-waiting
Dan Alstani take to the field for the first time in ages. The 43 year-old Romanian was obviously out of shape, but the Birds' dominance meant that it hardly mattered. Grilled would be four up after the next ten minutes, as
Teo Chuan Yong and
Vikram Mudaliar scored, before the Bayern Kingstown Arena witnessed the unlikely sight of
Cameron Law nudging it home from a melee in the box.
Bayern would have a second go at getting a consolation at least in the 40th minute, with Dwight Andrews again putting in most of the grunt work behind the scenes. While nominally a striker for the day, Andrews had spent most of his time shuttling between defence and attack, and thus it was that he sprayed a wonderful through pass towards Andre Ashmeade, after yet another retrieval operation. Were it not for the long legs of
Sølve Lunde, this would surely have put Ashmeade clear on goal.
Half-time came and went, which gave the Birds an opportunity to reset themselves in their 3-5-2, and Bayern to catch a breather and return to their original pressing outlook. This went quite well for them, and the only half-opening for Grilled in the first fifteen minutes of the second half would be a partial look-in by
José Luiz Velho, well-stopped by Wilhellam. Teo would be taken off for
Moey Xin Seng soon after that, and the Grilled captain would waste no time in asserting vocal control.
This breathed new life into the Grilled team, and with Moey calling the shots, there would be markedly more running by the midfield set. With a little additional help from Mudaliar, this would result in another unexpected goalscorer for the Birds, as Alstani found himself in a tempting position about ten yards out, 67 minutes in. His lashed effort did find the net, which also opened his account at the club, three seasons into his stay.
The match was unfortunately getting somewhat testy, not helped by
Radovan Jaška going in hard on Dwight Andrews, which spelt the end of the youngster's day. The five thousand-odd home supporters recognized Andrews' contributions with sustained applause, as he was withdrawn for former Hungarian national team striker Márton Balog. In his heyday, Balog had been a terror, but at 41 years old, he would pose little additional danger to the Grilled backline.
Toma Tamiya would be the next victim as he took a charge by Paul Julien straight on in the chest, which had
Heng Dong Chu on. This did open the door for
José Luiz Velho to round out the scoring after some pinpoint crossfield distribution from the free-kick, which led into a couple of leisurely late subs by the home side.
