Birds In Finland
An Keng Return
Finnish VI.176 leaders Kalastajat welcomed Grilled Birds for this week's friendly, and had them sweat slightly in the first half being succumbing 1-5. Jere Lukkala's focus would be his budding local front three of Sami-Pekka Alajärvi, Manu Aalos and Erkka Kuusela, and the 20 year-olds showed enough to suggest that they will become a terror down the line.
English goalkeeper David Butler would be the only non-homegrown player in a trainee team that also included Sami-Pekka's younger brother Teo Alajärvi at rightback in an aggressive 2-5-3. It was thus a clash of youth with
Kendell El Khateeb and
Mason Glendinning heading up the Birds' side, which however also boasted a midfield of regulars - granted with
Genki Nagano out of position at left wing.
Grilled's makeshift defence would be enough to make it entertaining, and Sami-Pekka Alajärvi wasted no time in finding
Fu Wenlong out with his irrepressible running, leading to a basic overrunning of the pace-challenged defender in the sixth minute.
Dahan Bok looked frustrated at himself for not getting something on the shot from about eight yards, though it was well-hit enough.
There would then be a series of near-misses from the visitors, with Butler saving their first serious attempt, from Genki in the nineteenth minute. There would be an abortive counter following
Chia Kwang Tse's rush and cleared corner four minutes on, with numbers doing the trick against
Chad Thach's goalmouth struggle a little later. Thach kept on trucking, and he would claim a 33rd minute equalizer though the build-up was hardly pretty.
That broke Kalastajat's resistance, and they would let two more in the 35th, beginning with a reaching volley by
Mohd Marzuki Khairul off
Damian Hutter's speculative loft from defence. They gambled and lost on a mass charge from the kick-off, which had it become 3-1 after
Lim An Keng bypassed a confused Jehki Raumonen, who didn't seem to know what he was supposed to be doing.
Thach was out for
Hwang Teck Fu at half-time, which hardly affected the flow of the match, with the experienced Grilled starters having long gotten the measure of their opponents. Admittedly, the youthful Kalastajat team never made it easy with their persistence, but they would be vulnerable to clever passing from the Birds - such as in the 62nd minute off a sudden reversal from
Chia Kwang Tse, only for
Lim An Keng to go for the lob instead of advancing.
Butler would have an unfortunate lapse in concentration on
Fu Wenlong's free-kick 75 minutes in, and was caught napping when the relatively weak effort dropped over the defensive wall. This perhaps contributed to the promising Sami-Pekka Alajärvi purposefully delaying another take two minutes later by standing in front of the ball, for which he was carded.
Lim An Keng then ripped a second goal home with seven minutes remaining, with Manu Aalos booked for a late tackle on the assisting
Kendell El Khateeb.
