Lucayan Lounge
Atang Basking
It would be a first trip for Grilled Birds to the Bahamas, a season after their professional football league system had been setup, and the Birds would be hosted by the Lucayan Lions of III.5. An affiliate of Italy's H.C. San Marco, the Lions had done well to romp to a Division Four title while suffering but a single loss, but have found their main rivals in Sävast på Semester and United Adelaide rather tougher to deal with nowadays.
Polish head coach Krzysztof Ołtarzewski had been judicious with his purchases, having yet to break the seven-figure mark on any single player. The closest thus far would be just over eight hundred and fifty thousand on Norwegian skipper Gudbrand Ørjavik, for his ability to fill in just about anywhere across midfield and defence, as the tactics called for. Ørjavik would play central defence today with Ołtarzewski correctly identifying the threat that Grilled posed, but that was not enough to keep them from succumbing.
On the other hand,
Tian Yonghang had sportingly included 42 year-old Botswana senior
Atang Mangoye at the back too, and with goalkeeper
Dahan Bok very much wanting for form, the Lions must have fancied their chances. The first goal would be a decidedly Japanese affair, as it turned out:
Toma Tamiya was too casual with his penalty, sending it straight into Bennett Shrum, and from the breakaway up the right flank, young forward Kohei Matsumoto easily outsped Mangoye to fire past
Dahan Bok.
If the fans smelled a mismatch, they would soon learn that it could go the other way too; Grilled were helped by their overall dominance, and it was remarkable that only Raúl Pelegrín would be booked for the hosts, after 33 minutes. That would be the sign for Mangoye to apply himself up front, and he flaunted the value of experience as he staked out a spot in the box that all but invited
Lim An Keng to pass to. Shrum could do little as the veteran swept it past him with a single touch.
The match entered half-time still level as Kohei Matsumoto's impressive speed again allowed him to race past the Birds' defensive line despite starting several yards behind, this after
Damian Hutter found himself woefully out of position after wandering upfield in search of his own goal.
Lim An Keng would answer two minutes before the break, as the Birds knocked it around the centre.
Lucayan Lions placed most of their faith in legwork for the second half, with their players certainly sparing no effort in applying a rough-and-ready press on their Birds counterparts. Grilled were somewhat accustomed to that, though, and there was always an air about them of striving to drain their opponents' reserves. This came to a head in the 73rd minute with Uzbek referee Hoja Shanson awarding a free-kick not long after Tom Goodwin's entry, and
Toma Tamiya brought a top save out of Shrum with a great strike.
Grilled Birds would finally go in first for the first time after 77 minutes, as winger Fab Spalding got booked for crashing into
Chia Kwang Tse without warning. A corner would arise out of this, from which
Gandhik Chitre scored after an unexpected fumble by the otherwise-excellent Shrum. That didn't last the minute as Basil Burrows equalized from some terrible defending, but
Chad Thach then followed up his previous assist, with a thunderbolt from the right edge of the penalty area!
Tian looked more invested that he should have been in a mere friendly, from how he leapt at that goal, and he would then expend his substitutions on
Mohsen El Khateeb, and then
Radovan Jaška and
Chan Ze Han right before the end. There was still enough stoppage time for
Toma Tamiya to force Shrum into an awkward block from a dipping free-kick, but unfortunately for the goalkeeper, Atang Mangoya was waiting to polish it off on this occasion.
