Fishy Business
An Keng Out
Grilled Birds flew over to Equatorial Guinea for their first friendly in the newly-recognized Hattrick league, which ended 7-0 against IV.14 hosts Peces Poderosos FC, an affiliate of Norway's Grand Champs United. Romanian boss Simion Solcanu had engaged in a series of low-profile signings thus far, and snagged bargains such as Brazilian veteran journeyman Enzo Moreira, who was stationed in left central midfield today.
These canny purchases had contributed to their still being in the thick of the title race, with a likely decider against the Bioko Boys due this weekend. Even with top stars Fernando Pinar and Jari Mattinen kept in reserve, Poderosos retained the likes of Imri Goldblatt and Ivan Savov for this friendly, to power a wing-based 3-5-2 that had served them well thus far. Finnish former multiple Golden Boot winner Jukka Vuolteenaho featured in attack, but it was homegrown goalkeeper Pedro Ondo that saw the most action throughout.
Peces Poderosos FC would hold the Birds for over half an hour aided by the heavy pitch, that had not taken well to the constant rainfall over the past hours. Tian had moreover trialled his own take on the 3-5-2, which saw
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko attempt a very deep-lying distributive role, sitting just ahead of
Damian Hutter and
Mohsen El Khateeb. The two forwards were then
Paulino Trindade and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, the latter of whom finally put Grilled ahead in the 32nd minute after something of a hard slog.
This opened the floodgates metaphorically, and despite some brief confusion,
Kendell El Khateeb assisted
Lim An Keng with a long flick four minutes later once he had regained his bearings. Lim's next effort, coming soon after, would be cleared off the line by sweeper Don Embela. Pedro Ondo's relief was short-lived, alas, as he then conceded twice from an uncompromising
Hwang Teck Fu before half-time rolled around.
Poderosos did get their own shot between Hwang's goals in the 42nd minute, this due to
Mohsen El Khateeb's weakly-struck backpass towards
Dahan Bok, that Austrian striker Reinhard Grabner might have gotten onto had it not been for Dahan's alertness. Moreira took over as captain as the 38 year-old Vuolteenaho gave way to Adriano Patti, which didn't keep Marzuki from finding his second goal with a blunt drive, two minutes into the new half.
Lim An Keng remained very involved in central midfield, and he would find himself exchanging positions with Marzuki in the 55th minute, only to put it into the side-netting as he came up short on catching
Aw Keng Chuan's lob over the top. He would have to come off in the 66th, however, after using his left hand to break a fall. This appeared to have jarred his wrist, and Tian would quickly signal for
Hisham Zubari to replace him.
Grilled weren't overly affected by the unscheduled departure, and they would reach seven goals by the 76th minute. Zubari eased into the creator's role without skipping a beat, and he slid it between two defenders 74 minutes in, for
Genki Nagano to polish off. Ondo then got something on
Hwang Teck Fu's ship two minutes later, but not enough to prevent the Birds star from completing his hat-trick.
Poderosos were not entirely put off yet, and with Solcanu repeatedly exhorting them to redirect their efforts out wide, Italian youngster Federico Scornavacca would rush
Genki Nagano and then
Mohsen El Khateeb in turn. Bulgarian midfielder Ivan Savov then got off a clean strike with the Grilled defence expecting a conventional cross - but
Dahan Bok reacted well to preserve his clean sheet.
