Sénégal Colour
Triple Double
The Birds would fly to Dakar for today's friendly against II.2 outfit Sénégal Football Academy, an affiliate of Italian Division Six club SEVERBORG.FC. In this case, S.F.A has arguably long outstripped the originals, beginning with their 120,001-capacity Senegal Dome, one of the largest in the country. English head coach Andy Bradley has been amply supported too, with his latest buy being Pakistani national team midfield prospect Bilal Nishat from Switzerland's Sundia FC.
Nishat would not be involved today as Bradley went with his reserves, though in all honesty there remained plenty of quality - and some hidden gems. 37 year-old veteran striker Damiano Baragli all but demanded respect as a target man's target man, with Vietnamese winger Nguyễn Bặc providing the leadership on the right, and former Danish youth international Erland Gammelgaard featuring in defence. And then there would be the likes of teenager El Hadj Loh, starting in only his sixth senior match, as a 17 year-old.
It was difficult to fault this hotchpotch of players too much for conceding within two minutes against Grilled's much more integrated team, then, even if the scorer came out of left field - literally, in this case.
Mohsen El Khateeb was supposed to be holding the fort, after all, but one supposes that everything goes in an exhibition. His teammates were certainly not complaining about his abandoning his post after the fact!
The game would continue with the hosts also happily improvising, and after
Gandhik Chitre lifted a great chance over goalie Guido Gunzelmann but onto the top of the crossbar, S.F.A would equalize on the half-hour mark. El Hadj Loh might be inexperienced, but very little of that matters in a duel, as
Paulino Trindade found to his disconsolation. Once Loh picked the correct moment to release it to Damiano Baragli, the goal was as good as done.
Not that the equalizer lasted too long, as
Evandro La Face restored Grilled's advantage within three minutes, slashing in on his good right foot. There would be a long lull after that until the 63rd minute as Mohsen's wonderful day continued as he threw himself into an overhead kick on an awkward lob from Ferzan, which made it three for Grilled. The Senegalese would reply four minutes later as Nguyễn Bặc dazzled a path inside before feeding Crisólogo Zachinno, with the Argentine midfielder popping the pullback home.
There would be no treble for Mohsen as he was then taken off for
Teo Chuan Yong, to the dismay of most of the Grilled fans present. Mohsen appeared to take his departure in good grade, and in any case there would be a new fellow rising to the fore -
Paulino Trindade. He would put an indifferent first half behind him as he went two from two in three frenetic minutes, with a near-miss by Damiano Baragli sandwiched in betweeen.
Bilal Mohammad Harun would be on for
Gandhik Chitre as stoppage time approached, and in what would be the final play of the game,
Evandro La Face threw himself at
Federico Parada's flat cross, only to have his bullet header punched well away by Guido Gunzelmann. It was not over as
Paulino Trindade volleyed the ball back inside on reflex, though, and this time La Face's header was low and true.