Awards Responded To
Club senior
Kalki Parvathaneni, who had toiled thanklessly for the first half, was as wowed by
José Luiz Velho's strikes as any of the Grilled fans that had made the long trip. "The free-kick was flawless, but the first goal - now, that was special." Kalki gushed. "It's the kind of move that you just can't train for."
Head coach
Tian Yonghang was quick to laud
Cameron Law too, on top of Velho. "Cameron stopped a penalty, remember." he reminded. "Without that, Pigeons might have hunkered down further, and made it very hard for us."
Yesterday's Player of the Year recipients were very encouraged by the recognition, from how they performed in the other friendlies. Farmer Bunnies had embarassingly fallen behind by three goals to Ootakalakatoovik within 18 minutes, including two by former Angolan national star Florêncio Fernandes, before
Jerad Meyer got one back. It was still looking quite bad, when
Vitaliy Efendiev ensured they made it to the interval down by one only.
The Uzbekistani Division Two club maintained that lead through the second half, moreover pressing
Gabriel Luke into several top saves, just to keep the Buns in it. Somehow,
Sunil Patel would equalize off a huge deflection in injury time, which had it go to penalties after a lone
Guan Ming Kum shot on target in extra time.
Lim Su Liang would hammer the Buns' fifth and last take past Iranian veteran Hossein Ali Pak, which meant that Boris Egorushkin's weak effort doomed the visitors to defeat.
"This is the sort of never-say-die attitude that I love."
Dalibor Kostadinović declared. "This may be the first time that some of the youngsters have come back to win from three down - if so, they should carve the memory into their minds."
In contrast, Grilled International were never in any real danger against Moroccan II.1 side Tangier FC, who fell behind to
Chua Jun Long's little flick in the 21st minute, before finding themselves absolutely swamped.
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan would find his first goal at senior level off a header in the 29th to make it 3-0, after
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh had gone through too.
Li Xin Chi and
Wang Hanxuan would make up the rest of the scoring in the second half, with Otia Sartchiani keeping Chua from a second, in the very last minute. It was enough for the Brunei national squad prospect, nevertheless. "Can't complain, got goal."
