Rangers Dazed
Marzuki Twinkles
Grilled Birds welcomed German V.200 leaders Galaxy Rangers to The Cooking Pot for today's friendly, and the fifty year-old Bayern mainstays brought their budding homegrown central midfield three, ably led by former national youth winger Ingo Alsen on the right. This was still always going to be a tough ask against a Birds second team, and Rangers' press could only keep the scoreline down to five against them.
There would be a mix-up of sorts for Rangers' lineup, so it seemed, as they gave the order for ex-Mongolian U-20 defender Tsagadai Juchin to come off for 22 year-old Blasius Oralman in the first minute - possibly over lingering concerns about Juchin's groin pull. Oralman would thus cover the centre beside Martin Lichtinghagen as Juchin palmed the armband off on Hannes Gust, but neither could do anything but watch as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul sniped Kevin Draschan from eighteen yards, eight minutes in.
They would be lucky to avoid conceding a second in the very next minute as
Lim An Keng inexplicably failed to notice
Toma Tamiya's swerving cross skipping at him from the left, and it fell to Alsen to enjoy the next big chance of the game in the 19th, only to lob this rare opportunity wide. It would have been painful had
Radomil Marcol's big goal kick to Toma resulted in a goal, but Toma would be forced outside by Nepali Surendr Ksetrini, and drilled his finish into the side-netting.
Rangers had actually been pushing Grilled quite competently for the first half-hour, but as so often is the case, the press would collapse all at once as their players' stamina reserves ran dry. Toma, who had been so active, would find the second goal towards the tail-end of the 30th minute, as
Paulino Trindade weaved his way down the other wing.
Two more goals would quickly follow, first from Marzuki who anticipated Oralman's feint into a backpass in the 33rd. It was still not easy to chase the ball down before the intended recepient Draschan did, but Marzuki's split-second headstart proved to be sufficient. A double-team did deny Marzuki another chance on Grilled's next possession, but Trindade's header made it 4-0 by the 38th minute, helped by a minor deflection.
Radomil Marcol's job was done as
Dahan Bok replaced him between the sticks for the second half, but truth be told, it would not be a good test for Bok either. Rangers would scarcely venture out of their own half, probably to conserve energy, which did help them to focus their pressing on where it was most needed. This would yield only two openings of note for the Birds until the last ten minutes or so, with
Hwang Teck Fu and
Chad Thach coming close.
Much of this was down to Leander Böhm's efforts, as the 22 year-old box-to-box midfielder put in the yards and tackles - and good ones, at that. Grilled would have to take their time in unravelling Rangers' shell, and it took a massive dribble from
Gandhik Chitre in the 79th minute, to crack a hole open on their left.
Chia Kwang Tse saw the opportunity, and stared Draschan down before slipping the ball between his legs.
There would be a long stoppage soon afterwards with Martin Lichtinghagen suffering a dead leg, which had him eventually subbed out for Christopher Schweden. Forward Mattis Oralman - no relation to Blasius - had endured an unproductive second professional match following his winning debut against India's Mindhunters! last week, but he would at least play a large part in drawing
Mohsen El Khateeb away for Donatello Piccolo to have a go. Unfortunately for him,
Dahan Bok's reflexes were top-notch.
