Soft Landing
Chad Recharge
East Coast club JellyHead, fifteen-season residents of III.2, gave nearly as good as they got against Grilled Birds today - but eventually still fell 3-5 against the Birds' superior offence. They never looked out of contention, however, with Grilled appearing at least a little complacent as they went through the motions at times.
Having won in the first round on the back of a Macoumba Krouma brace, and 3-2 against Daxuepiao in the league with Krouma again scoring, it was no wonder that all eyes were on the French hotshot, who had just celebrated his 28th birthday yesterday. Romanian veteran Leontin Stoica would provide the leadership to his right, with Croatian star striker Roland Tkalčić eager to get his season started here.
On Grilled's end,
Paulino Trindade would continue his tryout at forward, with
Toma Tamiya rewarded with another stint at left wing. Overall, there seemed to have been some underestimation on display, as the Birds were caught dallying on the ball several times in the first ten minutes. Such laxity did not become them, and they would pay for it in the eleventh, as Krouma slung a free-kick low across the box, for Heng Chun Chi to drill past
Dimitris Germanakos with precision.
That jolted the visitors into a more serious mood, and they would prove more than able to unlock JellyHead's ageing backline. Brazilian Rodger Schlehen was a bumper S$8 million signing when he arrived seven seasons ago, but he had never been known for his agility even then, and would be left rooted when
Chad Thach popped up before him to nick it past countryman Ataliba Cisneros in goal. Six minutes later, it was Thach to again show up uninvited, as the Number Ten swung around Mozambique man Júlio Torres to chip it into the top corner for 2-1.
The doughty JellyHeads were rocked by going behind, and
Brian Reddy was not one to miss that observation; he would go all out in his next dribble at the heart of the opposition defence, and although there was an element of luck in his mishit shot trickling past a wrongfooted Cisneros, it was hard to deny that he made much of his own fortune there. The hosts would recover, though, and the game swung their way in the 35th minute, when
Damian Hutter was adjudged by Polish referee Bogdan Prusakowski to have impeded Roland Tkalčić in the box.
The decision was upheld over Hutter and company's strong protests, with Macoumba Krouma waiting patiently behind the penalty spot, ball tucked under his armpit.
Dimitris Germanakos bounced around on the line in an effort to distract Krouma... which might actually have worked out, as he smashed the kick wide! Sadly for Germanakos, he tore his pectoral muscle flinging himself at the shot, and would be stretchered off with third-choice goalkeeper
Dahan Bok called to action in his stead.
The teams looked content playing out the rest of the half tamely as they considered their positions, which had JellyHead charge the Birds wholeheartedly when the match restarted. This caught Grilled unprepared, and following a couple minutes of disorganized defending, Tkalčić would pounce on Heng Chun Chi's perceptive inside pass from the left. They nearly pressed this advantage into an equalizer the next minute, but Alex Rocsin wound up getting booked instead, as the wily
Ha Qicai inserted himself between the forward and the ball in time.
Still, this indicated that JellyHead were well capable of turning it around, and it would take
Chia Kwang Tse's sharpshooting coming up from the right side, to open up another two-goal lead for Grilled in the 53rd. The loyal JellyHeads support would not waver despite that latest setback, and amidst their rolling cheers from the gallery, their team would pull back yet again 59 minutes in; Heng Chun Chi again demonstrated his quality in evading
Gandhik Chitre and then Hutter in turn, before lifting it for Azer Melki to nod past
Dahan Bok with flair.
This was, in the end, not sufficient as
Brian Reddy pressed Rodger Schlehen's poor control to gain possession for Grilled's fifth goal just two minutes later, with Chitre himself whipping a curler inches wide in the 68th minute. JellyHead's slim odds were not helped by Júlio Torres' dead calf, as Spanish defender Gumersindo Viturro took his time adapting to the pace.
