Burkina Explosion
Aw Pulls On Gloves
It would be a vigorous workout in Burkina Faso for Grilled Birds, as they played III.6 club Torpedo BF at Eduard Strelcov before nearly four thousand curious onlookers. With affiliated outfits in Bulgaria and Macedonia, Torpedo had support to draw upon in building their squad, which has seen Polish head coach Juliusz Cybiński amply backed in the transfer market. Star youth goalkeeper Vasil Petkov would not feature today, though, nor 22 year-old Iranian striker Behdad Teymourtash, who had been at the centre of a transfer soap opera that had seen him threaten a transfer last Saturday, only to be retained.
That left the reliable homegrown pair of Stephane Tandamba and Amidou Dakuyo to keep the order in a basic 3-5-2, targeting Adamo Touré as their finisher. It was the Birds who rose to the challenge for all of the hosts' bluster, and suitable warning was provided as
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan pranced past Belgian rightback Hennie Van Duffel in the fourth minute, only to hit it weakly at Stephane Dah. Ferzan didn't hide his frustration at his poor last touch, and improved greatly on his next strike five minutes later; this time, he caught it full on his instep, and Dah got nowhere close to it.
Torpedo managed to get it back to 1-1 shortly after, with Ghislain Pille - playing only his fourth senior game - getting in behind
Mohsen El Khateeb with Ferzan not very interesting in helping out, and exchanging expertly with Touré. It would be back to the Birds after that hiccup, as
Radovan Jaška slid a free-kick under the wall 25 minutes in, before Ferzan and
Paulino Trindade upped it to 1-4 by half-time, as Grilled's midfield kept churning out chances.
Gústav Thoroddsen came on for the slightly-too-passive
Phua Ming Xin for the second half, with
Evandro La Face also replacing
Ibnou Balde, as
Tian Yonghang continued testing out his newest combination. The first big opening would be Torpedo's, however, as
Mohsen El Khateeb's lack of assurance as a defender continued to show, with him putting an indecisive pass across the box that would be easily intercepted by Pille. A second for the youngster looked to be on the cards, but
Cameron Law pounced fearlessly to deny him.
That stumble done with, it would be Grilled to press hard again with Thoroddsen's evident class attracting plenty of attention, which opened plenty of room for his teammates to push into the Torpedo penalty area.
Gandhik Chitre was the first to benefit, as he scooped it in after Dah had Aurier had left the ball for each other. Pity
Mohsen El Khateeb, however, as he got crunched between two other players in the lead-up to
Hwang Teck Fu's assist. Mohsen would complain of a jarred right shoulder, which had
Bhavya Panigrahi more than willing to take over the load.
Not that there was much to do in Grilled's defence, with
Lim An Keng making it six soon enough with a boomer of a shot, but what happened there was often brutal. Goalkeeper
Cameron Law was the next casualty as he was barged down by Amidou Dakuyo to a fifty-fifty ball, and Estonian referee Endel Kaldvee would show him the yellow to appease Law's teammates as much as any real infraction. Grilled were now out of substitutes, though, and there would be a brief discussion as to who would hang out in goal, before
Aw Keng Chuan volunteered himself.
The kitman would help Aw on with some spare gloves, but it had to be said that he was hardly a natural at the job, with the hosts scoring against him on their very first attempt. Fousseni Saré's header at goal after Dakuyo's stubborn run wasn't bad, but one would have expected a real custodian to have gotten his hands on that. The Birds could afford to laugh on it, being yet four goals up, which was soon returned to five as Lim sidled inside and chipped it past Dah, several minutes later.
That had Pierre Aurier booked too for unsuccessfully trying to drag Lim back by the back of his jersey, which had to be replaced after the incident due to an obvious tear. By then, both of them could look at the funny side of things too, and
Paulino Trindade got the final total to double digits with his own raking grounder from over fifteen yards, with eleven minutes left.
