Blessed Beginnings
Mottl Settlement
Chad Thach and
Lau Chu Soon would start at the first opportunity in today's friendly in the Barbados, against II.2 club Saint Paul FC. Ironically, it would also probably mark the end of another career, as the hosts' 38 year-old Italian goalkeeper Manuele Bonmezzadri had to be stretchered off with a severely-strained left thigh, having already hinted at retiring by the end of the season.
Most of the attention had been on Grilled's new Numbers Twelve and Twenty-two elsewise, as they trotted out in the Birds' kit, mere days after being officially signed to the team. It would be a mixed bag composed largely of reserves too, if with
Chan Ze Han captaining from left wing,
Douglas Carapaica on the right, and
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud seeking to work his way back to full match fitness. Up top, it would be
Atang Mangoye to have a go again, beside main striker
José Luiz Velho.
It was a similar configuration for the hosts, with veterans Vladimír Záviška and Brandomil Boal far and away their most accomplished players. This made for a bit of an experiment with the Birds attempting to impose themselves - not very convincingly - on Saint Paul's two banks of five.
Chad Thach, eager to make a name for himself, had plenty of bark but not all that much bite to go with it, at least until he tripped Boal in the 13th minute. Referee Marzio Calda had let that slide, but would be forced to book the youngster after he contested the call vigorously.
The more-seasoned Lau would segue rather more smoothly into the lineup, and he would execute one of his trademark barely-legal crunching tackles on opposing debutant Andrew Pettit, in the eighteenth minute. Still, Lau's lack of form would be evident otherwise, as the misplaced passes kept piling up. A pity, given that the hosts were clearly unpractised at their ultra-defensive formation, and quite frequently exposed gaps that would have been mercilessly punished by a better midfield.
Grilled were not entirely toothless, and
Chan Ze Han would rush inside in the 35th minute, with Abd Hadi sensing the opening. This sadly led to Bonmezzadri's retirement, as the goalkeeper overextended his left leg in throwing it out for the block. Young defender Giuseppe Marradi would further be yellow carded for some shoving with Velho after the match had been stopped for Bonmezzadri to be looked at, and it would resume with Romanian first-choice custodian Andrei Ţig between the posts.
If it were any consolation to Bonmezzadri, he had kept a clean sheet in perhaps his last professional appearance, and the second half would smell of fresh promise with
Prokop Mottl replacing a mostly-ineffective Mangoye for the Birds. On Saint Paul's side, they had another first-timer in Kesrick Shuffler switch positions with Muhammad Wynne on the wing, although this frankly didn't change much from how they were covering for each other already.
Somewhat disappointingly, the game only got more and more disjointed on Grilled's end, as their struggles to break through verged on the farcical at times, what with all the misunderstandings going on. It became only more evident that any winner would likely arise from individual genius, and
Prokop Mottl and
José Luiz Velho both came very close in the 78th minute, with the former lobbing it onto the bar, and the latter anticipating the rebound - only for a heroic save on the line by Ţig. Pettit would then do his part excellently, as he held Lau off to scramble the ball out of danger.
A draw seemed very much on the cards when
Dante Tran and
Cameron Law went off next, as neither
Yuta Nakakita nor
Yee Jian Hui seemed likely to suddenly shift the proceedings in Grilled's favour. Yee would overturn such expectations in double-quick time, though, as he shaved the crossbar for a second time in five minutes. In the end, it would be a run-of-the-mill mistake from Sigifrid Malima that sank Saint Paul, with Mottl pouncing immediately.
