Strandhüpfer Too Strong
Taper After Toma
Having just won the Belize Consolation Cup against Belgian Lokomotiv Coroz last season, Swiss-founded second division club Trudis Strandhüpfer may yet be headed for greater things, under energetic local head coach Dale Brown. Their 3-1 mastering of Grilled Birds in today's friendly certainly didn't suggest otherwise, even if neither fielded anywhere close to their best sides.
With the Birds now mired in a battle for survival,
Hilal Bakhtiar hardly had much leeway to tinker about with personnel, and avoiding injury to the regulars was again his priority here. Exceptions were perhaps
Douglas Carapaica and
Teo Chuan Yong, with
Heng Dong Chu starting on the left in a 3-5-2. It was a mixed bag otherwise, and against a strong Strandhüpfer midfield trio helmed by French veteran captain António Paulino Lourenço, it was hardly easy to tell who had the upper hand.
The hosts' young five-man backline had twenty-year olds Viorel Bighiu and Hj Azim bin Hj Zulkefly as the seniors in it, with Matthieu Petitfrère, Braulio Guevara Mora and Yakiv Golovnya all eighteen years or below, the latter two moreover with at most six professional appearances under their belt. Then again, a frontline of
José Luiz Velho and
Atang Mangoye was hardly one to naturally strike fear into defenders' hearts, no disrespect intended to Grilled's chosen front two.
For all this, the Birds would breach the Strandhüpfer defence within thirteen minutes, although that was down to neither Velho and Mangoya. Indeed, they weren't even anywhere near the action as it happened, having dropped deep right as
Heng Dong Chu put the moves on Golovnya down the left. The Ukrainian teenager was game, but no match for Heng's vast repertoire of dribbling tricks, and it ran right through for
Toma Tamiya to take advantage, at the far side of goal.
This represented a blip in the greater scheme, though, as the hosts would soon exert their influence in the critical midfield area, with
Dante Tran and
Radovan Jaška never quite matching up with their practised movement as a unit. This resulted in a yellow for Tran soon enough, but Strandhüpfer's too-direct efforts at feeding their forwards wouldn't come off for a long while. It finally all came together four minutes from half-time, as Lourenço pushed into Grilled's right defence, with
Gilbert Webb already fully engaged by Júlio Vaz Gomes.
Cameron Law was left standing ineffectually in no man's land as the pass was hit to František Chalupecký, who could hardly miss at that range.
Grilled seemed flustered by that piece of embarassing defending, and would go on to concede another right before half-time, with Bighiu bringing it up for the young Mora to ram home, from just outside the penalty area.
Manuel Vadalà wasn't happy with himself at that one, and as for the goalscorer, he would make to mark his first goal at senior level by nearly pulling off his jersey, before deciding that a potential booking wasn't worth it.
Teo would be replaced by
Moey Xin Seng for the second half, with
Kalki Parvathaneni also coming on for Heng - though the winger could hold his head up high as Grilled's outstanding performer for the forty-five minutes he was on. That changed little, however, as Strandhüpfer knew how they could handle the Birds by now. Keeping it tight in the middle, Yvann Pochat drew a foul from
Radovan Jaška in the 49th minute, and the free-kick was taken immediately towards Hj Azim bin Hj Zulkefly, who tested Vadalà with a wickedly-dipping strike. Referee Michal Boťánek seemed to consider letting it go, but finally wrote Jaška's name down as well.
The Birds then had their best chance of the period, with
Kalki Parvathaneni continuing to be a revelation on the left, against all rational expectations. While somewhat diminished from his prime, Kalki's uncanny acceleration from zero remained a sight to behold, and Golovnya was left gaping in the 55th minute when it was put on full display. Unfortunately,
Atang Mangoye's finish lacked any true conviction, and Portuguese keeper Manuel Jacinto Santos Domingues gathered it without much difficulty.
It was then 3-1, as Strandhüpfer worked the left flank successfully again in the 68th minute.
Gilbert Webb was having a rough time of it against the opponents' preference to face him instead of Douglas, encouraged all the more by
Toma Tamiya's relative passivity, goal notwithstanding. Colombian Number Twenty-nine Elvis Yacumal had been waiting for his turn all day, and when Gomes put him through, he made the most of it.
Júlio Vaz Gomes would be replaced by Courtney Mullings in the aftermath, with Pochat next to go off for Pietro Regini. The Birds tried but went nowhere for all of Moey's prodding, and by the time Jason Greenidge took over from Domingues in their goal, the latter had not been called into action for the better part of half an hour.
