Moey Still Best
Visitors Balkanized
Moey Xin Seng might be pushing forty, but the Grilled captain still has what it takes, if his winning brace against Canadian IV.4 visitors Inter Balkan FC is anything to go by. He would serve as the fulcrum of the Birds' attack for the bulk of the friendly, with
Chan Ze Han sitting this one out, and if Moey has lost some yards of pace since his prime, his eye for goal may be sharper than ever before.
Inter Balkan FC had endured a difficult season in the third division, but with longtime German head coach Aloys Steimer-Lenz having guided them to three championships in Division Four, the board have kept faith with him for now. Big-name transfers have been hard to come by, with Bangladeshi ex-national youth defender Kaleem Fazi the last to break the S$10 million barrier, two years back. Since then, Turkish forward Mehmet Tulum and German fullback Bogdan Jokanović have been their only major signings, at relatively modest fees.
Fazi would not get off the bench today, as Steimer-Lenz kept with Romanian skipper Hristu Leancă at rightback, and Felipe Vayá in the middle - a solid enough combination together with Jokanović on the left. Sebastian Woldseth and Ákos Flaskár would be their main attacking engine running down the central spine, but there would be little enough evidence of that, as the Birds seized the early initiative.
Not much would come of it in the first half, however, as the Balkans' trusty Moazzam Ayaz would prove unbeatable in goal. Moey would have the first bite in the 12th minute when
Hwang Teck Fu's knockdown fell kindly into his path, but his legs were not what they were.
Chia Kwang Tse then banged one fearlessly into the crossbar in the 18th, with
Damian Hutter then finding himself dribbling at Ayaz four minutes on. Unfortunately, Hutter couldn't sort his feet out then when it mattered, and Ayaz collected from close up.
It was Chia and Mottl out,
Chad Thach and
José Luiz Velho on for the second half, with it being not very clear as to which team had the advantage in stamina. They turned out to be pretty even on that end, as the game slowed perceptibly. This favoured Moey, as it turned out, and Vayá will have to regret granting him time to think at the edge of the penalty area. Spotting Ayaz make his move, Moey would respond with an ambitious chip, that dropped just enough as it approached the bar. 1-0.
Inter Balkan FC were having some trouble feeding their forwards, but a calm spell of possession would bait
Gandhik Chitre into a rash tackle some twenty-five yards from goal, several minutes on. This had Mehmet Tulum step up, to float the free-kick to the far end of the box, targeting strike partner Ákos Flaskár. The position was not the best, however, and Flaskár could only send it into the first row of the gallery.
The visitors were not unduly discouraged, but found no legal way through, and had to increasingly resort to dubious tactics. Felipe Vayá would find himself in the unfamiliar act of running into the opposition box in the 61st, and spun in an exaggerated manner to the grass on making contact with
Atang Mangoye in the process. That was never going to convince Chilean referee Jonathan Polledri, who showed Vayá the yellow card. It was the same for Jokanović, after the fullback lashed out at the ball following a decision that went against him.
Still, the Balkans were very much in the mix, at least until
Moey Xin Seng upped Grilled's lead to two. This came from
Enrique Baena down the left, with the Spanish winger having been mostly reserved against the quality tandem of Leancă and Gary Adey before this. Baena's original killer instincts would rise to the fore in the 75th minute though, once Leancă went too early with the tackle for once. Refusing to be rushed, Baena would take it deep into the Balkans box, before serving it up on a plate for an appreciative Moey.
There would be no hat-trick for the captain as the preplanned substitution off for
Teo Chuan Yong took place after 80 minutes, and that was soon followed by the visitors getting one back via Giampietro Dinarelli, as the Grilled central defence folded at last. That was as far as the Balkans would get, however, and
José Luiz Velho would run the clock down at the corner flag in injury time.
