Eagles Gored
Tamiya Closer
Grenada III.11 outfit Gorredijkster Eagles were Grilled Birds' final friendly matchup for this season, and their Swiss captain Beat Eppenberger would lead them out at the Gordykster Fuotbalfjild. It was clear that the fans were most interesting in their budding midfield core, with Chinese import Myung-Won Jong having just turned 21, with Martin Chroustovský and Thomas Stenstad still just twenty. Brazilian striker Nathanael Santos Amorim faced off against
Ha Qicai up top, as
Cameron Law held goal for the Birds.
This was going to be a straight-up battle for the centre, one that the red-and-black-checked Eagles were destined to lose.
Aw Keng Chuan was at least a level ahead of anybody the hosts had, and in the absence of
Federico Parada,
Toma Tamiya would impress on the left. Ignacio Tolengo's refusal to track back played right into Toma's alley, and he would slide it across the box for
Paulino Trindade to nip in and convert at the far post after seventeen minutes.
There was more of the same coming up as Grilled sat on their possession before identifying leaks in the Eagles backline, which had Ingolf Fischer step in late against
Mohd Marzuki Khairul three minutes later. The free-kick would be laid wide for
Gandhik Chitre, who zipped it to the opposite goalpost for 2-0. Toma was involved a third time in the 24th, as he knocked a corner to
Lim An Keng for a majestic header past a flapping Mihai Tarcău.
That wasn't even the end of it for the first half, but Toma would finally not get the assist when
Hwang Teck Fu bagged a fourth after 31 minutes, with
Aw Keng Chuan spotting the Number Fifteen's energetic run in behind Eppenberger. The Birds would be leaning a lot on Toma given his hot streak, but with the Eagles having recognized his threat, he would be left with much less space to operate.
This unavoidably opened up room for the other Grilled players, and although Tarcău slapped
Chia Kwang Tse's perceptive toepoke aside two minutes after the restart, the ball didn't go far, and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul slammed it into the net without it touching the ground. The Romanian goalkeeper couldn't be faulted for that, and he would pull off top-class saves against Marzuki and Hwang through the second half.
Chan Ze Han and
Radovan Jaška would come on for the final ten minutes, but never quite got into the rhythm of things, as Gorredijkster Eagles tried to bring Amorim into the game too. They appeared to have settled for 0-5, but
Toma Tamiya had other ideas, and soared to guide one last goal home in stoppage time. Martin Chroustovský would then receive the game's only yellow card, as he refused to allow a free-kick, as his team lost the ball from kick-off.
