Drunk To The Tee
Number Named
Another flight to the Bahamas, this time to Acklins Island, had GrilledBirds take on Rom&Tequila77 - who, as their name might have vaguely suggested, had a Romanian connection through mother club Nihil sine Leo. Another of the outfits under this umbrella, Pufarinii subacvatici, has enjoyed great success in Kenya, and are currently contesting in the top flight there. For R&T77 though, there might be some way to go on today's evidence.
Then again, given that this was their third-ever match only, such critique is unfair, with Turkish gaffer Haluk Ogan still sorting through his options following a mass recruitment of eighteen players, most on free transfers. 17 year-old Dutch fullback Abdelbassir Benjelloune would hold their current transfer fee record at a hefty S$62000, making him perhaps their biggest draw alongside hometown star forward Manuel Dalestin. 20 year-old Indian playmaker Akshay Dias captained this young team, which had 28 year-old debutant Drake Stuart as their most senior member.
Ogan was under no illusions that they could duke it out straight with the Birds, and set the team out in a defensive 5-4-1 with instructions to simply cut out as much as they could. R&T77 indeed had running to spare, but this would be of limited effectiveness against a far more seasoned Grilled attack.
Gandhik Chitre broke through their resistance after twelve minutes with a strong dribble starting several yards outside the box, for which he got a negative reaction from the loud home fans.
It was the beginning of an exceedingly bad day for the R&T77 faithful, who soon saw
Hwang Teck Fu raid them twice by the 28th minute, sandwiching a yellow card for Danish lad Malik Lausten's hopeful dive in the box. Spanish goalkeeper Paco Guzmán lasted just half an hour on his first day at work here after leaving Czech Division Five side Bison Přerov, as he tweaked his right hamstring in springing for a save. Local backup Emiro Cirilo came on, and was similarly powerless to stop Grilled's barrage.
Drake Stuart would get a free look after a nonchalent
Chad Thach absent-mindedly lofted the ball across him in his own six-yard box, but he wasn't fully prepared for that either. Cirilo would then be welcomed properly by
Lim An Keng as the Birds sought to forget that near-embarassment, and Lim's hat-trick spanning just four minutes might just be a club record, with
Paulino Trindade and
Toma Tamiya racking up the assists.
That mastery of the striking arts even got the Grilled midfielder some grudging respect from the home support, and the Birds would graciously lay low for the rest of the half.
Dahan Bok would enter for the hardly-bothered
Dimitris Germanakos after the restart with R&T77 pressing busily, and Grilled still content to go through the motions. Gonzalo Marambio would be booked for the hosts in the 77th minute after kicking the ball away to prevent a free-kick being taken, for teammate Azrikam Shukrun to have his thigh looked at. While his intentions were good, the action did remain a foul, and the young Israeli defender would have to be replaced by Rudolf Goryl after inspection.
The Birds were done waiting around too, and they would shift back up the gears to provide some entertainment for the last ten minutes.
Gandhik Chitre missed a sitter from
Toma Tamiya's delivery from the delayed set piece, and it was down to
Hwang Teck Fu to get his own treble too, three minutes later.
Chad Thach then sparked some worry as he fell hard on his right leg, but he would be able to continue, and the friendly ended after five added minutes.
