Vasas 1 - 5 Grilled Birds
Eased Into Vasas
Gandhik Ascension
Grilled Birds returned to friendlies with a trip to Hungary, where they faced V.201 hosts Vasas in Budapest. Márton Kónya's side had not had a good time in Division Five after their promotion, having lost all eleven of their league matches thus far. One might not have guessed that from how loud their three thousand or so fans were, though, and while they would eventually fall 1-5, there remained fire enough in this set of players, to hint at a rosier future once they return to facing cushier opposition.
The standout of Vasas' XI was Dutch right-sided forward Xandro Zandvliet, who was ably backed up by local darling Ferenc Feledi. It was a rather more pedestrian selection with their remaining positions in their cookie-cutter 4-4-2, however, and Russian left winger Igor Kochugov would not make their day easier after tweaking his ankle trying to get away from
Paulino Trindade. And indeed, the Birds would open their accounts within the next four minutes, as
Gandhik Chitre read
Federico Parada's intentions perfectly as the Bolivian weighed his options on the left touchline.
Sweeper and captain Tamás Ignácz would have his hands full trying to coordinate his side's counterattacking plan against their Grilled visitors, many of whom had been frozen out of action for the last fortnight through no fault of their own - and it showed.
Evandro La Face for one would start only his second match for the Birds, nearly a month after his debut, and his frequent interchanges with his new teammates suggested that his layoff had been spent well in training. His good header in the 25th minute would be tipped over by Gergő Várhidi, but the corner was easily converted by
Lim An Keng, after Chitre zigzagged into meeting the delivery early.
La Face would not have much longer to wait before his maiden goal in green, as Victor Inhaíba would again not be able to match him in the air, as Trindade dropped one in. It was four-nil by 38 minutes, as Vasas' left side continued to buckle under persistent running from the Grilled players.
Lim An Keng was an active threat whenever he lost his Venezuelan counterpart Arnaldo Vásquez, and once Gregório Marques Fonseca failed to track his man when La Face darted to the side, it would only take the simplest of passes to
Gandhik Chitre for the tap-in.
Vasas deserved some perks for their loyal supporters, and Kónya's counterattacking strategy would finally bear some fruit as Várhidi slapped
Federico Parada's rising effort over next, with the corner cleared with good distance. That released Igor Kochugov with an open run on Grilled's goal, but perhaps due to his earlier ankle knock, Kochugov could not get away from the tracking
Radovan Jaška completely, and ballooned it under pressure.
The home fans clapped their appreciation despite the miss, and half-time arrived in as good a spirit as could be expected from the scoreline. Grilled Birds returned with a 41 year-old
Bhavya Panigrahi in place of
Mohsen El Khateeb, but to be honest, this was not expected to matter much from how little Mohsen had been called upon. Grilled were in no hurry to pick up the pace, and the friendly sort of meandered along until the 68th minute, when Benedek Nemere had several of
Federico Parada's mates furious at him, for what could have been a leg-breaker of a tackle.
Sri Lankan referee Gayan Shantha hastily smoothed the incident over by separating the two forming camps, but stopped short of sending Nemere off. The match then resumed after a long delay, straight into
Gandhik Chitre's hat-trick as his acceleration took him past all comers on the right. This had the 22 year-old claim the match ball prematurely while beaming, and could well give rise to some reassessments of his latent scoring potential.
What followed would be an almost comedic sequence of bad misses from the Birds, starting with Chitre's overdramatic choice of a diving header three minutes on, when a normal volley would probably have done the job. He could be forgiven that having already secured his treble, but
Lim An Keng would not be amused at himself for letting a possible hat-trick of his own slip by. His header from three yards somehow flew high over a gaping goalmouth, and when presented with much the same chance in the next minute, he failed to even make contact with his forehead.
It was no better for
Ibnou Balde, who has struggled to maintain relevance in the face of Grilled's shiny new transfers; he had been by far the most anonymous of the Birds' three forwards today, and although he caught the eye with an agile turn to peel away from Ignácz with five minutes left, he failed to beat the woodwork after that.
Chan Ze Han and
Toma Tamiya would arrive for Chitre and Parada as injury time beckoned, which saw Balde blow another fine chance leading to a consolation goal for Victor Inhaíba - and a yellow for the regrettably over-the-hill Panigrahi.
