Fribourg Reversal
Schmider Startup
Swiss H.A. VII.3931 club RB Fribourg, an offshoot of national league side RB Bärner Oberland, battled to a 1-3 loss at The Cooking Pot in this morning's friendly game. This was probably a good result for the visitors given their modest squad, though, and they would even grab the lead against a Birds lineup that held possession better than they exploited it. In the end, it would take a couple of set-pieces for Grilled to take the lead.
Arguably the best players that Fribourg had - Jean-Hugues Lherbier and Jolan Prestat - would start on the bench today, with Number Two Christof Hauri captaining their team from fullback. Head coach Martin Moutoux had assembled a mixed team of some merits, such as Sergio Schmider's electric, if not entirely focused, pace at right attack. Against this, the Birds would set their next-generation midfielders, including
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan at left wing.
Teo Chuan Yong would head an unrecognizable front three comprising also
Yee Jian Hui and
Toma Tamiya, as injuries and tactical considerations severely limited
Tian Yonghang's options.
From the looks of it, Tian had drilled the youngsters right in how to keep the ball, as the starting midfield of
Mohd Marzuki Khairul,
Hwang Teck Fu and
Chad Thach would maintain an incredible possession statistic of some eighty percent through the whole match - if largely by not risking much of anything. It would turn out poorly when they did, as when Schmider caught their high line stepping up too late in the 13th minute, to beat both
Atang Mangoye and
Manuel Vadalà on the run. Hwang's rebuffed dribble in the 21st would have a similar effect, as Yohann Reignier nearly came good on the counter.
With almost all of the ball but next to no luck in even getting it to their forwards, it would take
Teo Chuan Yong's experience to get the Birds back on level terms. Not only did he go looking for the foul when badgered by Giuseppe Carpentieri in the 23rd minute - and more importantly,
convincingly - he would polish the free-kick off by himself too. Barthélémy Zénon requested for four men in his wall, but he might have regretted not adding a few more, as Teo went around Christof Hauri on the outside, to bury it at the post.
This marked Zénon's day getting a lot busier, and he would have to get down quickly to keep
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan's decent grounder out, three minutes on. Fribourg's defence would however continue to get the better of Grilled's ragtag forward line by and large, until another free-kick went the Birds' way in the 37th minute.
Toma Tamiya was sent sprawling by Yohann Reignier just before he cut into the penalty area then, and the low driven delivery would see
Aw Keng Chuan outmuscle all comers, to force home for 2-1.
There would be a spate of substitutions for the second half, with the visitors using all three of theirs, and the Birds taking Thach and Yee off for
Chia Kwang Tse and a lesser-spotted
Radovan Jaška. This wouldn't change much with regards to the general flow of the game, which had the Birds remaining laughably ineffective in supplying their forwards, in the main.
Hwang Teck Fu bucked the trend with a bullheaded charge that actually worked in the 54th minute, but his finishing strike would draw a fantastic save by Zénon.
Teo Chuan Yong would be the Birds' final departure, as he went off for
Moey Xin Seng with twenty minutes remaining, with Moey reprising the captaincy. He wouldn't take long to leave his mark either, as he twisted past Schmidi from the left to put in a toepoke that careened off the bar and behind. Zénon would make a fatal mistake in trying a fast restart for once, as the goal kick went awry, and
Chia Kwang Tse was left with a tap=in.
That made it 3-1, and put Grilled's victory beyond doubt, if not quite beyond an in-depth dissection in the afternoon training session. The young Birds would continue their artless assaults on the Fribourg goal, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul coming close right before the final whistle, as he brought the ball down neatly upon
Gandhik Chitre's sweet pass down the middle. It went high, though.
