Four Into The Matrix
Atang At It Late
The Birds accepted the invitation of Spanish VI.922 challengers Jacobianos for a friendly at their home stadium in Valencia, and had it fairly easy for all of the hosts' balanced fundamentals. Jacobianos head coach Esteban Enrile had tuned his team well for their 2-5-3, with plenty of defensive support from the wingbacks, and right forward Martín Texeira the pick of a passable lot. They would stride out confidently in their home kit of white with a purple diagonal stripe, and just about kept pace with Grilled for most of the contest.
With
Mohsen El Khateeb and
Atang Mangoye in central defence, the Birds could hardly be accused of being too unsporting, but a midfield core of Khairul, Chitre and Hwang ensured that Jacobianos would not find many - if any - chances to put
Manuel Vadalà to the test. They swarmed Grilled well at the start, and it took sixteen minutes before
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan finally got to run at Luis Romero Urzáiz on the right. His speed took him past the defender and his drive was true besides, but Ricardo Fortúnez dove low to keep it out for Poceiro to collect.
The hosts fell into disarray towards the middle of the first half upon several Grilled attacks threatening from all directions, which however also gave them their first real opportunity, a free-kick by Texeira that came off the bar.
Mohsen El Khateeb did brilliantly to wriggle free with the ball on the touchline, and although
Paulino Trindade's effort from the left was again saved by Fortúnez, young Costa Rican referee Gilberto Valerín had spied a handball in the process. His eyesight would be loudly questioned by the some five thousand locals, but
Teo Chuan Yong cared not as he smashed the penalty high and home.
They did not bear Trindade himself much ill-will, from how the São Tomé winger even got some encouragement for his trickiness and industry down his flank, and Trindade would raise the temperature again in the 38th minute, when he scuffed it off the post. The ball wasn't cleared far, and Fernando de Mora would suffer a mild concussion against
Bilal Mohammad Harun on the putback, with
Aw Keng Chuan then forcing Fortúnez back with a good volleyed lob. Trindade had been down with a strained right calf through all of this, and could finally receive treatment before the corner - to be wasted - was taken.
Enrile put his team back through their paces for the second half, as
Tian Yonghang felt it prudent not to risk Trindade any longer, with
Enrique Baena coming on instead. It was
Aw Keng Chuan who promoted himself as the flashier winger on the day, to the general surprise of the few visiting fans, and the stopper by profession would show himself more than willing to take a few risks. Another seemingly ill-advised lob would follow in the 67th minute, and once again it wasn't very far away!
Veterans Bilal and Teo would be off with that, with
José Luiz Velho and
Moey Xin Seng taking over. It had to be somewhat difficult to watch Moey reduced to a shadow of his former self physically, but his eye for a pass when in space remained as good as ever. A fresh Velho was able to stretch the Jacobianos backline on the left, and if nobody believed
Atang Mangoye would be able to do anything when the cross came in slightly behind him, they would be left gasping by the Botswanian's instinctive flying kick for two.
The home faithful could hardly be too disappointed with that, and mostly concentrated on cheering their team on for a consolation at least. Unfortunately, the Jacobianos players were uniformly spent about now, and it was Grilled to draw upon hidden reserves. Velho had energy to burn as he scooted about their box trying to sniff for mistakes, and he would shoot hard into the side netting in the 82nd, after taking it off Diego Armando Solla.
Gandhik Chitre did better three minutes later, as he inserted himself smoothly onto fine hold-up play from
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, and made it 3-0 Birds.
This was a little too much for Martín Texeira, it seemed, and the Jacobianos star would berate the young referee for giving another free-kick Grilled's way soon after kick-off, for which he would be carded after one extended complaint too many. This left more than enough time for Ferzan to correct his initial miss, as he nudged Poceiro out of the way as the ball fell at them in injury time, to create room for one last, successful dash on goal.
