Langen Lances Huel-sheng
Painful Penalties
The Birds got more than they bargained for in their friendly against German side 1. FC Langenhagen, with what was meant to be a training-cum-friendly game going to penalties.
The yellow-and-black of Langenhagen had no intention of allowing Grilled to settle, with forward Mathias Deilen especially active in the opening stages. After blasting narrowly wide in the sixteenth minute, he did it with guile two minutes later, lobbing Huel-sheng after drawing the Grilled goalie out.
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Deilen's job was made harder after strike partner Hardi Wagner punched
Chai Yew-Hoe for a nothing tackle by the Grilled youngster, and Chai had to be helped off bleeding from the nose. Wagner was of course dismissed, but that didn't prevent Nico Mohnen from making going two-footed in on
Aznan Noor Yadah.
The referee immediately booked Mohnen to keep things under control, and nearly missed Ovidiu Pistol's deadly header that Huel-sheng just about warded off, only awarding the corner after his assistant pointed his error out. Perhaps inspired by Reed's antics against Rubiskaya, Machado tried to get a penalty, but got only a yellow for his contrived dive.
Grilled did rather better in the second half, with
Aznan Noor Yadah being a constant thorn in the Langenhagen side, and scoring in the 50th minute. Substitute
Rafael García Sole was himself injured soon after, and
Kau Siu-Cheung ended up standing in in central midfield.
Tim Hobson was a whisker from winning it in the 71st minute, and again in the 93rd, as Grilled went for the kill. They even began to surpass their hosts in terms of aggression, with Magnusson booked for going right through Deilen in added time, an act which was extremely unpopular with the home crowd.
No-one else managed to score within 120 minutes, and the game proceeded to penalties, which the Germans won after Magunsson missed Grilled's fourth kick.
