Pompettes Pestered
Atang Settles
Ivory Coast II.3 club Les civettes pompettes had just survived a third straight sixth-placed finish in the league, defeating Fanny Football Club 4-2 in the qualifiers on Sunday, and thus their friendly loss today will probably not weigh too heavily on their minds. It would be a reserve-heavy affair anyway, with the Pompettes' most-famous player for the day - homegrown former youth international goalkeeper Youssouf Peko - starting in central defence. He wasn't half bad either, and they did field first-team forwards in Anthony Noël and Demetriusz Lewandowski.
Against that, it would be
Teo Chuan Yong and
Heng Dong Chu to drive the Birds again, but neither would make much of an impression against the hosts' conservative 5-3-2, in the first half.
José Luiz Velho would have a hard time leading the line for the Birds, and would be silenced further after his booking in the 12th minute, for going in on acting Pompettes captain Reggie Haagen from behind. Haagen would be odds-on to score six minutes later from a corner, after a blessed touch from Peko left it at his feet, which sadly for him, couldn't be sorted out in time.
The match then stewed for about twenty minutes, with neither team finding much inspiration in the withering dry heat. Things would pick up only after a stoppage for Moussa Affouchi's right ankle to be looked at, which had
Toma Tamiya try one from over thirty yards - that had the inexperienced Gnahoré Zanzan more concerned than he had any right to. Still, Pompettes were the winners from that as they opened the scoring through Akadjé Koko on the counter, and nearly had Stéphane Bansard double it, as they pressed Grilled to the wall on the restart.
It would take a double substitution of
Moey Xin Seng and
Kalki Parvathaneni on for Teo and Heng to change it around, and Kalki would go as far as to equalize on his first possession. Identifying Affouchi as a weak link on the left, Kalki would run at him without mercy at the first asking, and go on to dodge past Peko to open a window to shoot. It was tight, but he squeezed it in at the near post.
The game returned to its previous waiting mode, though the Birds were clearly holding the initiative through this period. The hosts kept it mostly clogged up through the middle, which had Moey's best efforts fall short more than once. Nevertheless, with all the chances piling up, Grilled would have to have at least one of them get through, which happened with
Radovan Jaška in the 75th. The Czech midfielder didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing, when he dug his foot under the ball after being thrown off balance mid-run then, but it worked.
Pompettes would catch Grilled on the counter again after 83 minutes, this time thanks to Lewandowski, but the match appeared won when Kalki blazed past Affouchi once again just two minutes from time, which called into question as to whether the trainee should have even stayed on after his initial injury.
Dante Tran would not find himself very popular with the home crowd after a blatant attempt to time-waste, and there would be some glee over and above the usual, when Stéphane Bansard levelled again, right as the game entered time added on.
That didn't hide that the Birds probably deserved to take this one, however, and after
Atang Mangoye clipped home just his second for the club early on, Pompettes honestly never felt like mounting a third comeback. There would be brief worry for
Toma Tamiya after he rolled around clutching his knee for a bit, but it turned out fine for him. The penalty that he won would be converted somewhat ostentatiously by
Gilbert Webb, who injected levity into the proceedings with an exaggerated run-up, before just about getting it past Zanzan.
