Turco Single Take
Furtado Notch
El Salvador III.1 contestants Turco Sport Clube B, an affiliate of Brazil's Turco Sport Clube, travelled to The Cooking Pot for a friendly this morning - and were duly provided a harsh lesson. Since it was a reserve side led by 43 year-old forward Arístides Galavis, however, the scoreline was perhaps to be expected, even if it might have been hard to take for rising young goalkeeper Sebastião Pirata.
Pirata had been hailed as one of Turco's main hopes since his arrival as a teenager from Sao Paulo's Falido for S$6 million about two years prior, and the lanky custodian certainly looked the part. His young backline left much more to be desired, however, and often left space on the right for
Toma Tamiya to occupy. An unopposed foray from Toma in the seventh minute opened
Mohd Marzuki Khairul for a chance at the far post, and Marzuki beat the challenging angle to open accounts.
Grilled were not above some roughhousing when they had to, and
Aw Keng Chuan was probably lucky to escape with a yellow, when he bowled Marcel Calderón Sol over intentionally in the 26th, and tried to get away with it. That was probably unlikely with the Birds hogging possession, which had
Gandhik Chitre add a second in the 34th minute. Turco were being suppressed well, only for one club man Héctor Furtado to suddenly pull clear way outside the box 41 minutes in - and beat
Cameron Law with a world-class screamer.
The strike was of such quality that even the home fans could hardly get mad at conceding it, and the blow was in any case soothed heavily as Grilled reaped three more goals before the break.
Lim An Keng was in the thick of things as he assisted fellow midfielders Chia and Hwang, while nearly getting embarassed by José Fernando Nieves' in between, right before his own contribution. Ariel Szczepaniak then got booked for a very late tackle on Toma that soon led to a corner, where Lim nearly recorded a third assist, only for
Mohsen El Khateeb to rock the post.
Turco fared much better after the fifteen minutes of rest, and they would hold out for close to half an hour before conceding.
Toma Tamiya continued being left largely free on the left wing, and he would eventually make the visitors pay for that in the 74th, after one of his many cross attempts was finally missed by the defence.
Gandhik Chitre miscontrolled initially, but had the presence of mind to tap it away from Noah Vrencev, before swinging low and hard for 6-1.
Aw Keng Chuan and
Damian Hutter were then substituted in the 80th minute for
Chan Ze Han and
Teo Chuan Yong, and Mohsen would then find the woodwork again four minutes later, as his excellent lob went beyond Pirata's reach only to brush the crossbar. The next attack had Teo force a superb save from Pirata, before Toma got his just rewards after being left alone yet again.