43v3r 5 - 2 Grilled Birds
Fevered Realization
Gerko Flaunt
Division Three will hardly be as much of a respite as some Birds fans are imagining, if today's friendly contest against Orchard-based III.16 side 43v3r is anything to go by. The hosts ran up a 5-2 win without putting too much into it, despite Grilled fielding more or less the same lineup as they would be expected to deploy in the league for the coming season. Moey and Bilal would score - and elegantly, at that - but also display warning signs of age catching up.
Tian Yonghang would mention a testing of the waters as a reason for arranging this local friendly, and 43v3r's Finnish gaffer Harri Sinko was happy enough to accept. This season had seen few big moves for 43v3r, other than the arrivals of midfielders Édouard Salabert and Honorato Taisacan, the former of whom would make his debut today. Salabert looks set to become a favourite, as he took just three minutes to squeeze a pass through to right forward Noel Olmos Ribera, who ducked in ahead of
Gilbert Webb and dealt out a sharp finish.
This quietened the few hundred Birds diehards that had made the trip to 43v3r Homeland, and it would soon be clear that the standard in the third division might be higher than they remembered it to be. Salabert and Taisacan aside, Dutchman Gerko van Marken was perhaps the pick of the lot, but his salary of S$175,000 a week and change has evidently encouraged Sinko to put him up for sale. That did not affect his effectiveness on the pitch, of course, and he would work his way through Grilled's defence, slowly at first, then at a canter, before hammering the second goal past
Dimitris Germanakos in the 22nd minute.
If
Lim An Keng and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul were having a hard time, they did their best not to show it, and would come up with the odd cogent attack plan themselves. A busy run by Khairul would be channeled wide in the 28th minute, and while he won a corner out of it,
Paulino Trindade stabbed it inches wide despite Webb's delivery somehow getting to him at the far post. Marcin Kaczmarski would instead have 43v3r three-nil up four minutes on, as the hosts kept on challening Grilled's centrebacks, to much success.
Lim refused to be discouraged, one had to give him that, and that had the Birds finally pull one back before half-time. He drew Henry Brandstrup to the corner flag before trying to send his cross down the line, secure in the knowledge that a corner would be near guaranteed were it blocked. That was how it turned out, and
Chan Ze Han rose highest this time, for a vital touch on to
Bilal Mohammad Harun, who lashed it at - and in off - the foot of the post.
Kaczmarski answered like for like soon enough, but Germanakos would be relieved to watch the shot come to him off the upright. Grilled would start off the stronger for the fifteen-minute break, and appeared almost competitive with their opponents in midfield at times. Trindade had his moments against Lars Detavernier on the right flank, certainly, and one particular cutback in the 61st was enough for
Moey Xin Seng to flip it home for 3-2.
This was perhaps due to Detavernier's disinterest to an extent, with the Belgian star also marked for a move, but the sting of having given up a goal seemed to stir him, to Grilled's detriment. More straightforward knocking down the middle had Noel Olmos Ribera nick another for 43v3r, but at the cost of trainee striker Vishnu Javali, who had inadvertently performed the splits, in getting the assist. It was clear that this took much more flexibility than Javali in fact had, and Peh Feng Feng would have to come in to finish the match.
Peh had not had the opportunity to get involved, when Detavernier took matters into his own hands, or left boot, as it were. Still sticking to an astonishingly direct approach, 43v3r held the ball for some half a minute in front of the Birds' penalty area, before the Belgian ran with it, pulling away from Lim in the process.
Bhavya Panigrahi tried to close him down, but would be shook free of via a simple drop of the shoulder, before the ball got drilled into the net.
Both Grilled scorers would be off before the final whistle, with Moey passing the baton to
Kalki Parvathaneni, and the armband to
Chan Ze Han, with ten minutes left. Bilal would likewise leave for
Gandhik Chitre right before the end, which had
Dimitris Germanakos come up with a super save against Ribera's thunderbolt from the left, in injury time.
