Elewijt Hold Out
Kendell Overtime
Belgian V.84 leaders Voetbal Vooruit Elewijt saw the Birds off in their late afternoon friendly today, which was also their tenth successive win over the past month and a bit. Romanian gaffer Oleg Coţoban had brought in the wing pair of Narn Gibbes and Cătălin-Andrei Percea for this season, and both would play a major part in hustling to a narrow 3-2 at a soggy De Verbeelding.
It was not as if Grilled Birds could take the wet conditions as an excuse, what with another fully-loaded midfield that had
Lim An Keng captain the side from the right wing, and the El Khateeb brothers start in defence and attack respectively. For the hosts, 39 year-old veteran striker Jack Orban appeared a little out of place, with the commentators joking whether his 18 year-old son Kevin De Messemaeker - currently serving his time in the club academy - might have been a better choice. Reserve goalkeeper Bazil Făgăraş looked more than serious in goal, having expressed his intent to challenge former Iranian youth international Soroush Jalalvand for the starting spot.
That did not feel entirely impossible from how he handled Grilled's lightning start, that had
Genki Nagano try to fake the defence out from his second-minute free-kick, only to have rightback Lyam Van Loock herd the looming
Mason Glendinning aside at the last moment. Făgăraş then clawed
Damian Hutter's powerful effort back into play after the Birds moved it around, and it was ex-Moldovian U-20 attacker Serafim Caraman who robbed a distracted
Mohd Marzuki Khairul to score first in the eighth minute.
Elewijt certainly knew their way around their own ground in such conditions, and the rest of the half would be an exercise in patience for Grilled. There was not much they could do with visibility decreasing, and their only opportunity of note would come around the 21st minute, when an apparent mistake instead let
Lim An Keng get past his marker into the Elewijt backfield. Alas, the home team had the numbers at the back, and
Chad Thach would be left fighting to get to a cross that wound up easily claimed by Jean-Denis Baes.
Hwang Teck Fu replaced
Chia Kwang Tse in midfield for the second half, but the Birds continued to struggle to get into gear anyway. The usual understanding between their core players was not in evidence, in contrast to Elewijt's simple yet effective tactic of shifting it wide whenever they came into any trouble. One such move had the New Zealander Gibbes swing it inside from the right, and homegrown midfield trainee Yaro Floor met it with a towering header for 2-0.
In the end, Grilled Birds could only haul themselves back from the penalty spot, with
Kendell El Khateeb's fall in the ensuing run from kickoff recognized by referee Denholm Wicketts. The home fans did not accept the decision, but their concerted whistling had no impact on
Fu Wenlong, who sent Făgăraş the wrong way after a short run-up. The Birds remained unable to consistently make their way into the opposition box, however, causing
Genki Nagano to try his luck from distance in the 65th minute - and he wasn't all that far off!
The Birds would hit the floor again soon, alas, as Yaro's younger brother Floran came out the best from a goalmouth melee having dribbled madly into a crowd of deffenders, and wound up nicking a third goal past
Dahan Bok. There would be a long stoppage as Wicketts and his assistants took stock of what had happened, which ended with Narn Gibbes carded for his late takedown of
Lim An Keng, away from the main action. The goal still stood, though.
Grilled did have siblings too, and Mohsen found a long pass to
Kendell El Khateeb almost as soon as the match restarted, with the latter then skipping past Baes to catch Făgăraş wrongfooted with an early lob. This was about as far as the Birds could go with the hosts going full defensive afterwards, with Baes next to be booked for trying to delay the play, 79 minutes in.
