Netting In New Jersey
Hutter Hacked
Grilled Birds' midweek exhibition game saw them visit the east coast of the U.S. to take on the navy-and-white stripes of V.169 club Othitikos C.F.P., under unexpectedly adverse conditions as their under-refurbishment Dimotiko Megaro Othous stadium was blanketed by torrential rain. Czech referee Alexandr Pojar deemed conditions sufficient for the match to take place, to the general satisfaction of the some 4300 who had turned up, and 24 year-old home favourite Brennan Beck would lead the teams out to begin the slog.
That was perhaps not saying much given the club's no-buy philosophy, with new head coach Tomás Saviñón showing no signs of changing it since taking charge some months prior. Much had been made of their expansive midfield dynamics, from the trio of Dalmiro Avendaño, Chase Wheeler and Daniel Carlyle. Victor Dunaway has been making strides as a forward, but has found first-team appearances hard to come by, due to the dominance of Nicko Albrando - who was left on the bench today.
The Birds' midfield prowess had them come up with the majority of the notable chances, starting with
Ha Qicai ranging far to get on the end of
Hwang Teck Fu's layoff in the 12th minute, only to drag it wide despite dodging Micky Ryan's approach.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul did no better after his own swashbuckling dribble fourteen minutes later, as the hosts compressed their five-man backline.
A turning point came with
Damian Hutter's departure after being on the end of a characteristically stiff forward's sliding tackle by Victor Dunaway, which took the back of his ankles. Hutter would end up tearing something in his left thigh during the fall, which had him replaced by
Mohsen El Khateeb with a contrite Dunaway carded. This saw Johnny Meade open as Grilled struggled to adjust, but
Gandhik Chitre equalized from the restart as Othitikos stood off.
Tian Yonghang would have a word with Pojar for not protecting Hutter right after half-time was blown for, but the Birds actually needed next to no aid, going by on-field happenings. The ground was mostly mud by now, but
Lim An Keng appeared used to worse pitches, as he made his way to the head of the box with determination in the 53rd minute.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul placed it for him with as much grace as could be expected from the situation, and Lim duly put it past young Linval Clarke in goal.
There might have been plenty more goals for Grilled had the ground been better, as
Aw Keng Chuan,
Toma Tamiya and even
Mohsen El Khateeb coming very close in the following minutes, as the wind and rain pounded down. In fact, El Khateeb's was probably the pick of the lot as he raced twenty metres with ball at feet in the 73rd, and only Clarke at full stretch prevented the defender from sticking it home.
