Czermno Censure
Quick Off The Blocks
The Birds would travel to Poland for the penultimate friendly of this season, as they were hosted by Hattrick Anniversary League side, Jagoda Czermno. Czermno had finished in the middle of the VII.3717 pack, though in fairness, Spanish head coach Alberto Caravia had not been splashing the cash. His four buys thus far have been budget deals for trainees, one of whom - Gonzalo Almeciga - would have his day spoilt.
Before that, however, it would be a very watchable first ten minutes, as a freed Birds XI made the most of their removed tactical restrictions.
Tian Yonghang had evidently allowed the players to express themselves to the fullest, and the at-times chaotic, at-times brilliant invention that emerged, would have
Chad Thach find himself in a position to run at an isolated Ignacy Łazarz, in the sixth minute. That he did, and a well-timed effort to boot would allow him to scuff it past Sylwester Pypeć. Not the most elegant of goals, but it would do.
The second goal wouldn't win any prizes for aesthetics either, but there was something to be said about how Grilled won the corner in the first place, as
Hwang Teck Fu hugged the touchline in advancing the ball up the left, when there seemed no space to do so. The 18 year-old would elbow out all comers in getting a touch on the corner too, to
Toma Tamiya's great benefit, as he then shoved it in at the far post for 2-0.
Czermno were hardly a bad team for that, it should be said, and they might have equalized before half-time with some luck. Bogusław Złoty gave Toma and
Chirag Thevar the run-around in the 24th minute, but his impressive extended run would be met by
Manuel Vadalà.
Mohsen El Khateeb then lost it to Bogusz Gierasimczuk not long after, but Vadalà would again be there to rescue the mistake.
Almeciga had been steadily upping his game through all this, as he directed Czermno's attacks from midfield, but his stint would be ended by
Kalki Parvathaneni's messy challenge in the 38th, which flattened him from behind. That was extra hard on Almeciga's right ankle, and he would have to go off for Hubert Sierzputowski, as Turkish referee Halil Utku Yaren duly showed Kalki the yellow card.
Kalki wouldn't last much longer himself as he would be replaced by
Prokop Mottl for the second half, with his armband quite fittingly going to
Manuel Vadalà, who had bailed the team out twice already.
Gandhik Chitre would also swap roles with Hwang, as the hosts made a few on-field switches of their own. This didn't do much for their organization, it had to be said, as they generally posed rather less threat than they had in the first half.
The hosts would get an interesting indirect free-kick opportunity after a high boot in the box by
Yee Jian Hui, but there would be no space for them to do anything. Mirosław Białokozowicz would then have it taken off his feet just as he was rearing up to shoot in the 67th minute, and after
Mohsen El Khateeb went off for
Atang Mangoye, another indirect effort went to waste, with Sierzputowski forced into a weak grounder.
There was little more to be said about the going-ons at the other end too, with both Kalki and Velho completely gassed well before the ninety were up, and thus this ended two-nil for the Birds.
