Saints Held Up
Proxy Battle
Saint Paul FC had requested a return fixture after last week's friendly, but with an unforeseen emergency forcing them to stay home, the Birds would be offered the alternative of playing a bunch of their local associates decked out in their colours instead. This went about as expected, but from how the team had been destroyed in the league over the weekend, dealing out a seven-nil of their own had to be refreshing.
The players certainly saw the wisdom in a morale booster here, particularly 35 year-old Italian custodian
Manuel Vadalà, who has become the club's first choice goalie with Jānis Salmiņš' departure, and no replacement in sight. A cloud continued hanging over some of the others here, however, most notably
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud and
Douglas Carapaica, who have reportedly had ten-figure asking prices slapped on them.
The leisurely friendly would be presided over by Spanish referee Quinto Janza, who might have been in a holiday mood too, from how the penalty that opened the scoring was approached.
José Luiz Velho appeared to clearly have his legs taken out from under him, as he went around Ahmad Izwan bin Angking in the 15th minute, but play was inexplicably waved on. It was only long after Saint Paul had sent it up the other end, that Janza whistled for the foul. Better late than never, anyhow, and
Gilbert Webb stuck it fearlessly into the top left corner.
The Scottish veteran would have something of a field day with the visiting not-visitors hardly posing any offensive threat, and he would enjoy bringing the ball up, with another goal coming from an excellently-struck 30th minute free-kick. The Saint Paul replacements were taking it fairly well, with defender Chen Zufu apologizing profusely, after a late takedown of
Atang Mangoye in the 34th. The game went on after a perfunctory booking, and Velho would get his own five minutes later, once again beating his marker on a direct dash.
The Mangoye for Mottl swap took place again at half-time, and was followed immediately by
Chan Ze Han putting the scoreline up to four-nil, as he burnt Bin Yahya upon rapidly going up through the gears from the left side, and sliding a typically precise finish to the far post. The opponents would show good heart as they consolidated after this setback, however, and despite less-than-ideal opposition, they defended with a resolve that would put some professional outfits to shame - for a time.
Grilled's superior stamina would have to show as the match wound towards its conclusion, and it would be
Prokop Mottl to again shine in these circumstances, as he had last week. There would be two goals for him today, as he linked up seamlessly with Velho. With
Yuta Nakakita and
Yee Jian Hui again on late,
Chan Ze Han would close it off, four minutes from time.
