Praha Treat
Kendell Pops
Uganda III.2 leaders and former Consolation Cup victors SK Slavia Praha CZ hosted Grilled Birds at their 68000-capacity Eden Uganda this evening, with close to five thousand paying spectators in attendance. The SK Slavia Praha spinoffs would be extra generous, as they put out what was mostly a reserve team, helmed by Israeli striker Evyatar Molnar. Romanian goalkeeper Cristi Ţarălungă moonlighted at right forward, to underline just how much French gaffer Clément Garand thought of this match.
Then again, Grilled were hardly at their best either, as they gave 19 year-old goalie
Khairil Anwar Hashim Mohd Ismail just his second senior appearance.
Damian Hutter and
Markus Pallas made up the defence, with midfield trainee
Kendell El Khateeb playing pivot together with acting captain
Darko Andrović. They worked together surprisingly well, it had to be said, and the Birds were two up by the sixth minute with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Paulino Trindade exploiting the reduced mobility of veteran local custodian Benjamin Odoch.
Molnar tried to pull his team together, but to no avail with the Grilled core simply several notches against his teammates. The Praha midfield got continually overrun, and it took some great shot-stopping by Odoch to delay the third goal till the 21st minute, when
Hwang Teck Fu clipped it past him with
Chad Thach laying the groundwork. Five minutes later, it was 4-0 as a vicious Thach drive could only be partly blocked by the goalkeeper, and
Chia Kwang Tse was there to lash it over the line before Khari Amollo got there.
The Birds supporters' favourite strike of the day was just arriving, and the cheers when
Kendell El Khateeb beat Odoch at the near post on Marzuki's assist, were louder than for any other goal. Rightly so, with it being Kendell's first at senior level, which was perhaps why Belgian referee Suat Günkaya let the 18 year-old off for removing his jersey and whirling it about in the aftermath.
The African fans were being awfully good sports about it too, perhaps made easier by their club's perfect ten-game winning streak in the league thus far, despite friendly losses to Israeli third divisioners Tokas and Finnish challengers Purple Dinghies over the past few weeks. There would be much vibrant drumming as the players came out a second time, though Kendell looked slightly sour at having to leave immediately after, even if it was for his older brother
Mohsen El Khateeb.
This wasn't going to slow the Birds much if any, and
Markus Pallas got the second half going in earnest with an ambitious diagonal pass down the left channel with his first touch, which fell perfectly for
Paulino Trindade. Trindade did well to keep his head up as rightback Muhamad Otim struggled to recover his footing, and his low cross was aimed right at
Chia Kwang Tse, who only had to get contact on the ball for 6-0.
Praha were not exactly exuding confidence in defence as they stuck with their 2-5-3 against practical needs, which had nobody watching
Mohd Marzuki Khairul as he ghosted in for the seventh goal, just three minutes after Chia's. Their 18 year-old right winger Abiria Opiyo was one of the few that were visibly unhappy at how the match was developing, but his trying to hold up a free-kick only brought him a retrospective booking - and didn't prevent
Toma Tamiya from bagging Grilled's eighth, after his teammates failed to play to the whistle.
There would then be a bad tackle by leftback Khari Amollo on
Chad Thach, definitely an automatic yellow, and the Singapore national forward would get his due nine minutes later in the 62nd, after some tricks from Andrović cleared a route for his pass. Odoch then got lucky on
Hwang Teck Fu's nearly-successful lob from distance, before going off for Italian backup Pasquale Bisceglia in the 77th minute. Grilled responded with a couple of minutes for
Radovan Jaška and
Atang Mangoye, the latter whom got a warmer welcome than most opponents.
