Recovery At Raccoons
Born For It Indeed
Romania's The Fearful Raccoons went two up at The Cooking Pot, but the III.8 club were eventually run down by an electric Birds lineup, one they had gotten into their groove. The tournament starts had evidently gotten
Brian Reddy some level of understanding with his new teammates, as he bagged an impressive brace on his official friendly debut for Grilled, putting him in quite exalted company.
That would take some time to come into being as the Raccoons first dazzled the crowd at The Cooking Pot with a surfeit of inventive attacking, which found Belgian forward genius Elio Nelemans creating chances left and right. Their real driver would be a superlative midfield trio, though, with former Algerian international Nassereddine Aissaoui linking up seamlessly with S$15 million men Constantin Roşioru and Radu Vârvorea, the latter who would command most of it from behind.
Vârvorea was not half bad at putting the ball into the net either, or embarassing opposing players, both of which he did in a fell swoop eleven minutes in.
Chia Kwang Tse appeared to have him under wraps on the edge of the penalty area, but a short step with his pivot foot would open Chia up to a silky-smooth nutmeg. Vârvorea would be past the Grilled Number 25 almost before he knew what had happened, and
Cameron Law wasn't equal to the solid grounder that followed.
Raccoons were lording it over the Birds from here on, and a second would follow in the 27th minute, as Poul Aslak overlapped Alexandru Pece on the right wing with exquisite timing. The supporters needn't have worried too much, as it happened, as Grilled's light shone through after conceding that. There was an extra gear or two in them, so it transpired, and a strong push by
Hwang Teck Fu up the centre in the 31st minute opened enough room for
Aw Keng Chuan to loop him in for the reducer.
The match had turned with a jarring abruptness, and it would be Grilled to harass their visitors back from now on. Neither Chia nor Hwang might have been at their best, but they would rise to somewhere near that here; Chia recovered from his earlier boo-boo with some very assured shielding of the ball and advancing about the 36th minute, and by the time he slid it on to
Gandhik Chitre, half of the work was done. Still, Chitre had to circle around Roşioru and avoid Vârvorea's approach, before hitting the spot between Kaan Davulcu and his near post for 2-2.
And then the moment that the fans had been waiting for. There was a roar of anticipation when
Brian Reddy trapped a long pass with almost contemptuous ease with five minutes left in the half, before facing down two Raccoons defenders before him. A couple of tension-filled seconds later, Reddy would edge leftwards... before switching to his right side in a flash, and making a crucial yard of space for the shot. There were about twelve yards to the goal, but it might as well have been none from how the stinging drive blew past Davulcu before he could react.
There would be no letup as
Ibnou Balde snuck in to up Grilled's lead to 4-2 as the Raccoons reeled, and it was perhaps as well for them that supporting forward Marius Danci tweaked his right foot when he did, seeing that it allowed them some vital minutes to settle.
Half-time would follow soon afterwards, but it didn't look as if Italian head coach Giampaolo Cuglietta had managed to drum their previous organization back into his team, during the interval. Grilled would come out of the gates flying, and
Paulino Trindade gave a great account of himself with a determined run from the left, picking himself up after what seemed a foul from a Raccoons fullback. His attempted lob would be blocked high, but
Chia Kwang Tse reclaimed it by bolding inserting himself as it came back down, and his finish was on the mark for 5-2!
The shine would quickly be taken off that as Reddy went back at it, but the supporters could hardly be blamed for being biased towards their new idol, not from the class he exuded in first getting the hard-hit pass under control, and then putting it away. The friendly would then die down some until the final five minutes, which had
Chan Ze Han and then
Teo Chuan Yong come on, for Trindade and Aw respectively.
That inspired some urgent late action, as demanded by the crowd, and it would be 17 year-old Sile Palada - making just his second senior start for the Raccoons - to beat
Mohsen El Khateeb and lash in his team's third goal, as regular time ended. Palada will be much-watched from how he bagged a brace before being sent off on his debut against CocoPug a fortnight ago, but it would be Chan to have the last say, with a fine volley that notched the outside of the goalpost.
