Youth To The East
Law Busted
Rwandan III.15 side Eastern Boys visited The Cooking Pot for their midweek friendly today, and their largely-reserve team performed over the odds to keep the scoreline down to 1-4 against some of the Birds' best. They arguably edged the battle of forwards with homegrown trainee Emmanuel Niyigena finding a late consolation goal against Greek veteran goalkeeper
Dimitris Germanakos, who had himself replaced fourth-choice
Cameron Law following a nasty foot injury.
South African defender Letsie Blayi would start his second match for the Boys a week after his S$2.2 million move from Spain's Pino del Río FC, which had him mostly responsible for shackling
Mason Glendinning. There was no answer to
Hwang Teck Fu, however, with the captain for the day hardly satiated after gorging himself with four goals against frunzelax. No-one quite knew what to make of his uncompromising rush up the middle in the second minute, and Hwang would stick it past Canesius Nyirarukund before Gabriel Vilaró chased him down.
The Boys' 3-4-3 were largely competitive for the next half an hour, as their general mobility made up for certain disadvantageous matchups. 18 year-old left striker Emery Mabula displayed great potential against the oft-struggling
Paulino Trindade in particular, but Grilled's home bias came to the fore in the 35th minute. The looked to be nothing in Blayi's slight push on
Kendell El Khateeb as they jostled for position inside the box, but young French referee Michaël Cornut awarded the penalty, and
Fu Wenlong tucked it away without a second thought.
It was then 3-0 in the very next minute as
Jerome Crawford marked his return by loping past his defender before cracking a rising shot into the net from some ten yards, having found little to occupy himself with at the back.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko was desperately unlucky with a sidewinder full-on into the left post on Grilled's next advance, as was
Paulino Trindade towards the end of the half, when his snap effort drew a hair-trigger reaction save by Nyirarukund.
There was still time after that for
Cameron Law to sustain his injury, this to his left leg that had been a chronic concern through his earlier career. Dutch forward Brian Matsier would display admirable workrate in chasing an overhit through pass played in by Miguel Escobedo, and although Law would clear in time, he stuck his left foot hard into the turf in the process. The match was immediately stopped, and
Dimitris Germanakos found himself entering right before the half-time whistle, with Law stretchered off in agony.
The second half began at an increased tempo with
Chad Thach raising his game on the left wing, if beginning with an inglorious yellow card in the 51st minute for booting the ball into the advertising hoardings, having narrowly lost out in a race against Ange Mugiraneza. Thach recovered to supply
Mason Glendinning with a superb reverse pass four minutes later, unfortunately missed by the young striker, after which he went it himself for Grilled's fourth goal in the 62nd minute.
That had the Birds pull back a little, inviting the Eastern Boys to try and test their defence. Their numerical shortage in midfield would not make it easy with their back three still largely conservative, and they only made some headway after Mugiraneza and Rolle resolved to be more adventurous on the wings. Grilled weren't making it too easy, that said, and Italian playmaker Mauro Sorarù was booked in the 71st minute, for stopping
Hwang Teck Fu's run with a shirt-tug.
Eastern Boys were getting more successful in getting the ball deep into Grilled's half for all that, much of which had to be attributed to the boundless energy of their young forwards. It would take an opportunistic counterattack for there to be actual end product, though, this after
Hwang Teck Fu had led half the Birds team into the Boys' final third. Gabriel Vilaró's picking Hwang's pocket started the recovery, and
Jerome Crawford couldn't stop Emmanuel Niyigena from coming up around the outside, and slotting it into Germanakos' far post.
That was also it for Crawford, who got replaced by
Damian Hutter before the restart, looking a little unhappy at himself for the lapse. The Birds would then have one more big chance as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul rushed past Rolle with some incredible close control on the right touchline, but
Kendell El Khateeb's forceful header was tipped over by Nyirarukundo's outstretched right arm.
