Kowloon Teardown
L&L Demolitionists
Hong Kong H.I. V.60 contenders Asia International Team hosted the Birds at their Arena of Stars - not far from the former Kowloon Walled City - today, and ran up a 7-1 score without too much difficulty against a pretty callow Grilled midfield. While Asia's own middle three were not exactly world-beaters, they remained plenty enough to handle the Birds' trainees, with
Gandhik Chitre in particular having a lot to adapt to.
It was actually not all doom and gloom to begin with, and
Chia Kwang Tse actually came away with the first shot on target of the friendly in the sixth minute, which had Ng Ruijia have to fling himself into a solid block. That would be the beginning of Grilled's downwards trend as Liu Congzhi recovered the long clearance out to the right and waltzed in to drive it past
Manuel Vadalà, sadly, and with
Kalki Parvathaneni tweaking his right angle in the 18th minute, the Birds would lose one of their only two outfield seniors present.
Chan Ze Han would be left to keep the hosts' defence honest with
Prokop Mottl dropping back after replacing Kalki, but there would be few to no such opportunities for Grilled, as Ling Huaiyi began cranking up his understanding with Liu; the duo would execute some excellent north-south exchanges, which had them collect four goals together in total, before the half was out. They were all pretty similar too, off dragbacks after one of them had done most of the penetration into the Grilled box, but it remained effective enough that the defence could not handle it.
Wide man Sung Chun Yin would try to get in on the act too, and he nearly profited from the Birds' wastefulness off a free-kick that he himself had conceded, moreover after being booked for a roughhouse challenge on
Enrique Baena. Sung put that high, but the pressure on Grilled wasn't relieved. Chitre would soon also be yellow carded for taking one for the team in holding up play, but that merely delayed the home side's next goal, 5-0 by Serbian forward Lazar Lazić.
Chia Kwang Tse would come inside for
Chad Thach for the second half, but to no real impact with Asia's midfield still vastly superior. The former Samuel Williamson and now Bobby Charlton would take over from Gahtan Mujali in defence for the hosts, not that it mattered much either. Baena would be next - and last - to go for the Birds, with
Toma Tamiya coming in on the hour, not long before Irish expat Paddy Coghlan broke past Thach and
Yee Jian Hui on the right wing to score.
There would be a couple of subs in for Asia, as Portuguese head coach Lourenço Sales gave U-20 players Wong Xiaogui and Cheng Guangzhong some minutes. This would even the odds abit, but the hosts would then score a seventh goal after Joselindo dos Santos fouled
Prokop Mottl, with Lazić racing upfield together with Coghlan carrying it up the right. The cross was lifted just out of Yee's reach, and within Lazić's.
Chia would then record the game's fourth yellow card after tangling with Ling Huaiyi on a loose ball, but there would be a late consolation in store for the Birds at least, although it looked like the hosts were mostly being generous, when
José Luiz Velho advanced into their six-yard box with three minutes remaining. Vadalà had a little more work to do too, as he denied Lazić his hat-trick from a left-sided thunderbolt.
