Strumming In Macedonia
Pindjurov Minus One
Grilled Birds would return to Macedonia for a friendly after a gap of eighteen years, with their hosts on this occasion being III.2 side Tiverija Strumica - the junior club of Division Two competitors Veljusa Village. As it turned out, this would be a day to remember for last season's big signing Martin Pindjurov, who marked his 22nd birthday with a goal - if in a losing effort.
Strumica's core player for the day would be 32 year-old Number Four Todor Argirovski, who marshalled their 5-5-0 from the left of midfield, inside of Pindjurov. Veteran reserve goalie Zarik Luga captained the team, but had evidently seen much better days. On the Birds' side,
Hwang Teck Fu did not travel with the squad after failing his late fitness test, which saw
Paulino Trindade cut a rare figure in the Grilled front three.
Trindade would not waste any time in making himself indispensible to Grilled's offensive efforts, in stark contrast to the far more measured
Chia Kwang Tse on the right, for one. While his direct opponent David Treneski might have featured for Macedonia at youth level, Trindade would honestly look more the part of an ex-international at times; a stubborn dribble right at Treneski in the eighth minute would leave the ball behind for
Chad Thach to take a crack, and the Number 22 did not disappoint with a stunner into the near top corner!
Then again, that could probably have been much closer to Luga and bulged the net anyway, which the rest of the Birds soon realized. They would soon be testing the goalkeeper's impaired mobility from all angles, encouraged by Strumica's tendency to clog up the box.
Damian Hutter found a hole in their defence with his raked left-footer in the sixteenth minute, with
Toma Tamiya bending a free-kick sharply home, 33 minutes in.
There would be no changes for either team at half-time, if with Meto Janakievski trying some individual runs from deep, to little success. The Birds would continue their siege with few interruptions, and recorded their first shot on target for the half, from
Ha Qicai's 56th minute slice onto the left upright. The counterattack created thus would threated
Dimitris Germanakos for the first time, but Boban Milosev's effort was far too soft.
The ball would soon be back at the other end as Germanakos threw it long to a waiting
Toma Tamiya on the left touchline, but Luga somehow gathered enough spring to catch
Chia Kwang Tse's excellent lob aimed at his back post. Grilled Birds forged on as the hosts could not quite clear their lines, and after a short series of individual battles on the left,
Gandhik Chitre would put his Birds 4-0 up from an acrobatic overhead kick.
Tiverija Strumica's fans would keep faith through all that, and they would be rewarded when Janakievski finally beat Hutter on the retreat, five minutes later. There was all to do as the cross came in towards Marjancho Pindjurov, what with
Ha Qicai still keeping in between him and the ball, but an intelligent back-off at the right moment threw the sweeper off, and allowed him an open header that was just good enough to beat Germanakos.
