Podlonk Štabbed
Thach Struts
The Birds would visit the 90,400-capacity Stadion Štab in Gorenjska, Slovenia to play III.10 club NK Podlonk, which would also be their first visit to the country for a friendly game in some twenty-five years. NŠ Bencak tamed Grilled Birds 6-0 then, but today would be a different story, as
Chad Thach and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul excelled against the hosts.
Podlonk would be arrayed in the same 2-5-3 as Grilled, under Belgian head coach Job Piret, but it was evident that their reserves were well off the quality of their main stars such as Zack Grinnell and Aleks Neugebauer. Affable Turkish midfielder Efe Can Rabap captained the team with the up-and-coming Ken Medic beside him, but there wouldn't be too much to shout about elsewise - right winger Zvonimir Terkaj and forward Astor Škvarča perhaps excepted.
The rest of the Podlonk team was largely made up of journeymen, and their earnest but overly direct play was not going to trouble the Birds too much.
Chia Kwang Tse was clearly raring to test Karol Arhar with a hybrid cross-lob in the tenth minute that had the goalie hesitating, before palming the ball over at the last moment. That had not gone unnoticed by the rest of the Grilled players, and
Chad Thach had better luck with his own calculated chip in the 26th minute, that had Arhar backpedalling too late.
Piret would soon be convinced that his lineup was not about to match Grilled's without some changes, and to this end he would put Hungarian first-teamer Mirkó Debreceni on for Ervin Švagelj, 34 minutes in. This would kick off a robust exchange that had
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's run in behind for 2-0 answered quickly by a prompt Branko Antić square ball to Zvonimir Terkaj.
Lim An Keng should really have made it three for Grilled next, but his determined run into a one-on-one with Arhar, ended with him trying to be too clever by half, and overrunning the ball.
Not many would have bet against the Birds despite that at half-time, which also saw
Tian Yonghang give
Mohsen El Khateeb a go on the left, replacing a quiet
Toma Tamiya. While not too useful on the attack, El Khateeb would give Zvonimir Terkaj a thing or two to think about with his close coverage, which suited Grilled's gameplan just fine. The rest of the team would click in the 52nd minute to put Marzuki through for a second time - helped by Lutogniew Kołodziejczyk's slow reaction - and it was 3-1.
Terkaj was too good to be neutralized fully, though, and the 22 year-old would start to overwhelm El Khateeb's best efforts. A nifty dragback in the 62nd minute would open up space for a homing cross towards Branko Antić, but the inexperienced teenager - playing only his fifth senior game - couldn't get there in time. Instead,
Cameron Law would pound it hard down the left flank, and the hardworking
Hwang Teck Fu collected it for
Chad Thach to enjoy one of the easiest finishes he will ever have in his career.
Podlonk were not exactly eager to risk themselves after that, and the game would slow perceptibly following this common understanding. Tian would use up his remaining subs for
Teo Chuan Yong and
Radovan Jaška to stretch their legs. Then, in the two minutes of stoppage time given by Liechtenstein referee Franz-Josef Büchel,
Chia Kwang Tse decided that he had not yet had enough, and tried a naughty lob on the turn - which came off perfectly.
