Hungary Eights
Zubari Wings It
Hungarian II.1 side Mesztéláb FC hosted Grilled Birds at their Ökörjáró stadium for this weekend friendly, which drew a respectable six thousand-odd paying viewers. They could not have been too chuffed at head coach Noé Kubicza putting out a team of veteran reserves, with the exception of debuting teenaged Swiss goalkeeper Théo Lory, who had just transferred from Bern club BSC CAS39 for two hundred thousand and change. The Birds would not stinge on welcoming Lory to the world of professional soccer, as they hit eight past him in the ensuing match.
The Birds did take their time to get going, as they spent the first twenty minutes just stroking the ball around, when it had long been clear that Mesztéláb's 5-5-0 formation was just there to throw up an obstacle. Of their players, homegrown midfielder Bojan Vlajnić was perhaps the most willing to try playing actual football, which did not come off all that often. Belgian captain and likely future coach Abélard Casaert had experience to spare as he captained the Hungarians at rightback, but at 44 years of age, his best playing days were surely behind him.
Grilled's breakthrough would come from the other flank in the 21st minute, as
Phillip Nagata snaked his way past Predrag Vujanović, and fed
Hisham Zubari from short range for a well-struck grounder that eluded Lory. Zubari turned provider eight minutes later in sending a free-ranging
Genki Nagano through, with the Birds' third and fourth goals then following from
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko and
Hwang Teck Fu, without too much fanfare.
There would be a cost to pay, with
Phillip Nagata persistently working hard on his wing, but to little direct reward. He would be urged to shoot by his teammates in the 39th minute right after Hwang's goal, having skipped past a flailing Branko Strmota leaving Théo Lory in between him and the net. He whipped it narrowly wide, alas, and would be off three minutes later having taken Vlajnić's blind clearance right between his legs. This was definitely not as funny as it looked to some in the crowd, and Nagata had to be helped off, allowing
Mohsen El Khateeb a look in.
The camera crew could not help zooming in on the sight of Nagata getting ice packs applied to his groin through half-time, which to be fair got him his fair share of ribbing from his mates. Expecting no real threat on goal,
Tian Yonghang let
Cameron Law replace
Radomil Marcol for the second half, with
Mason Glendinning raring to go in place of
Hwang Teck Fu.
With Nagata now gone, Grilled reconvened with a focus on the other flank, but while
Hisham Zubari was eager to oblige, he found it difficult to make space since Mesztéláb knew exactly what was coming. There was then another brief scare as
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko went down clutching his right calf in mid-sprint, but this proved to be a false alarm.
The game would restart with a drop ball after a brief stoppage, and
Lim An Keng was maybe not being the most sporting when he snatched it from Armen Mkrtchyan, before feeding it on to
Mohd Marzuki Khairul. Marzuki wasn't high-minded enough to pass up the through ball either, and would be roundly booed after depositing it home for 5-0. The spectators could not help but be charmed by
Mohsen El Khateeb's stunning overhead strike two minutes on, though, which helped to remind all that this was all for fun.
Encouraged by the more-positive vibes, Grilled Birds entered entertainment mode, and their rapid-fire inter-passing would bring two more goals in the 71st and 72nd minutes, as
Genki Nagano and
Hisham Zubari completed their respective braces. All attention would be on Phillip Nagano, however, as he swirled a towel - looking mostly recovered - from the bench.
