Crusade By Sevens
Ferzan Flaunts It
Grilled Birds' final guests at The Cooking Pot for the season would be Vicious Crusade of the Belarussian Vyshejshaja Liga, who have just repeated their best-ever finish of third, in the top division. Their biggest star, former Romanian youth international midfielder Robert Costescu, had just been sold for S$4.6 million to Marcofen, though, and recently-appointed player-coach, ex-Brunei national striker Nusron Falls, would delicately describe his squad as being "
in the works".
Czech centreback Zbyněk Toužimský would be their biggest name to make an appearance today, with China's Niu Hongcai not making the trip and Finland's Into Aho not making it off the bench, which made this a barely interesting exercise for a hungry Birds XI. Enrique Baena's departure meant that
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan and
Paulino Trindade were locks on the wings, with
Chan Ze Han on to work himself into match fitness for what might be his final campaign challenging for a regular spot.
Crusade didn't seem too interested as
Chad Thach slashed down the middle to peg it past Arkadz' Hryn in the fourth minute, and it soon became apparent that the visitors were not about to overexert themselves. What followed would resemble a leisurely afternoon training session, which saw a whiffed
Mohsen El Khateeb header make it through in the 23rd minute, before Ferzan came around the back to slam
Ibnou Balde's off-touch home for 3-0 soon after.
The half would end that way after strikes from
Gandhik Chitre and
Hwang Teck Fu flashed inches high, as Crusade skipper Dzmitry Baradzin struggle to keep his reserves motivated. Young forward Jury Kozhuh tried, as did Stanislau Liantsevich on the left, but this was more than could be said for most of the others. In the case of Leon Rytter and Traianos Malakakis, the trainee defenders were on only their second senior start, and thus should perhaps not be faulted too much for not keeping up.
Baradzin might have pulled off an incredibly motivational speech at half time, from how the Crusaders suddenly surged, which brought them their first recorded shot on target for the day in the 53rd minute, with Liantsevich swerving past several Birds defenders to let rip from eight yards. It wasn't that far from
Cameron Law, but the Grilled backup goalie still had to be alert, to get a hand in the way.
Mohsen El Khateeb would then do his best to get the visitors a consolation in the 59th minute, as he lazily stroked a pass right across Kozhuh, who however didn't seem to believe his eyes as it rolled across his path. Crusade would soon regret that as the Birds sent it up the right wing in a jiffy, and about twenty seconds later, Ferzan had crossed it long for
Gandhik Chitre to nod home, against the late jump of Bogdan-Ionuţ Trufin.
Two more goals would arrive before the seventieth minute, as Ferzan and then
Hwang Teck Fu worked the flanks industriously. The final one for the season would fall fittingly to
Chan Ze Han in the 74th, however, and the supporters must surely be speculating as to how the campaign might have turned out, had Chan not gotten that long-term injury at its outset...
