Port-au-Roi Lords It
Youngsters Trampled
Mohd Marzuki Khairul,
Enrique Baena and
Paulino Trindade made their first starts as Birds players at the senior level, and were duly run over by Comoros III.3 club Port-au-Roi Botteurs, who had not exactly been doing great in their league either. Even without rising star wingers Maoulida Ben Ali and Daroueche M'Changama, the hosts retained enough coherence to easily handle Grilled's bunch of disparate hotheads - but there will be time enough to work on that at least.
Grilled's selloffs had left only
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud and
Bilal Mohammad Harun to provide leadership here, what with
Chan Ze Han crocked and
Tian Yonghang not willing to risk his remaining regulars. As it turned out, Abd Hadi would soon become isolated in trying to provide a link between the nonexistent midfield and
José Luiz Velho, while Bilal - never a very convincing centreback - had that compounded by already-poor form.
Enrique Baena's madcap dribble down the left would be punished hard in the tenth minute, as Isaiah Kisulu reversed it into a top cross that a late-arriving Jaanfar Assoumani lashed past
Cameron Law.
Law's judgment and ability in the air would soon come into question, with the 22 year-old goalkeeper nowhere to be found when Shakour Ibrahim rose for a header in the 21st, despite apparently having more than enough time to come out and challenge. The Botteurs kept the tempo high and the shots flowing, and although Mohamed Abdullah put a great effort inches high at the half-hour mark, the constantly-in-motion Kisulu would break inside by himself three minutes later, to slip it under Law's grasp.
Mohamed Abdullah would require lengthy treatment on the pitch in the aftermath, having tweaked his right ankle in trying to get past
Aw Keng Chuan, in an off-the-ball incident. The forward made a swift recovery as he took Bilal on in a straight sprint shortly afterwards, and even risked sliding the last few feet, in sending the fourth goal between the goalie's legs.
This had to be somewhat embarassing for the Birds' friendly debutants, if not for Tian, who maintained an almost-smug half-smile as he observed from the bench. Only one change would be made for the second half, with an invisible Velho swapped out for
Prokop Mottl, who fared little better as an untapped target man.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul did not actually have all that bad of a day, and was perhaps the most sensible of all Grilled midfielders with his tidy touches and passes, though they tended to go nowhere fast.
It would then be 5-0 Botteurs, as they executed a classic corner combination. This new-look Grilled side could evidently do with a lot more coaching as they spread themselves haphazardly in the build-up, with several players drawn all too easily away from the centre, by the opposition runners. This left Juma Obado essentially unmarked, and he even had the luxury of placing his header, without having to leave the ground.
That might have been a bit too much for the coaching staff to stomach, and
Gilbert Webb would be on for
Dante Tran for the final twenty-five minutes. Coincidentally or not, that would be the end of the home team's scoring too, with the Birds also creating the first - and only - strike on target for the match. It just had to be
Mohd Marzuki Khairul too, as he plotted a clean give-and-go with Abd Hadi, but Botteurs keeper Mustafid Alhadhur held his nerve to make the block.
This brought about some roughhousing by the hosts, who had Jaanfar Assoumani and Nasserdine M'Dahoma booked in turn, as they imposed themselves on the teenaged Birds midfield. It did work, and the Botteurs were in no real trouble going into Bilal's exit for
Toma Tamiya in the final minute of regular time, with M'Dahoma further forcing Law into a big save in the first added minute.
