Foxt Unfogged
Zubari Satisfaction
The Birds would travel to Russia for their first friendly of the season, where they took on II.1 side Mishki Foxt. Chelyabinsk's top-ranked club had collected three national Challenger Cups too, though they had just crashed out of the latest edition of the Emerald trophy by a 1-3 scoreline, to seven-time national champions Red Dominators. National forward Osman Mashkovtsev took just two minutes to strike then, but he would not feature today, as Mishki instead had Maksim Vodyakhin and Leonid Bokachev supporting Ivory Coast international Ange Banzio in attack.
Midfielder and free-kick specialist Anton Filichev was probably the pick of the outfield after that, if with left winger Dmitriy Merkushkin also having his fans. Czech first-choice goalie Čestmír Štěrba had made it a point to start in all of their games when he could, and he would return after a short layoff after a freak injury against Strike Out Team some ten days ago. As for Grilled Birds, there would be the rare sight of
Hwang Teck Fu and
Chad Thach out wide, with the young forward trio of
Mason Glendinning,
Kendell El Khateeb and
Zaini Zainuddin Junaidi given their due.
What followed was a lesson in grim Russian restraint, as the hosts sought to shut play down as much as they could, from a nominal 3-4-3 formation. The commitment to pressing was quite admirable in a sense, with the strikers also very much involved, and Austrian defender
Damian Hutter could hardly believe it when Banzio came at him when he was still inside his own penalty area, for the fifth time in row.
Mishki Foxt would then enjoy their own spell of possession beginning about the 28th minute, with 39 year-old skipper Branislav Marenčík digging deep into his bag of tricks, to open some angles up. Marco Arosio embarked upon a deep run unnoticed several minutes later, and was duly sought up by Marenčík's laser-guided ball across to the right. Arosio continued down almost to the corner flag before swinging a cross in, and Dmitriy Merkushkin buried it after taking it off
Chia Kwang Tse following a stumble.
Grilled would storm the gates from the restart, which had
Hisham Zubari finally break the lines with a determined dribble, only to be clipped by Štěrba's outstretched leg as the goalkeeper warded the ball off. The referee awarded the penalty - immediately claimed by Zubari himself - but Štěrba got the home fans on their feet with a magnificent stop. No luck for Zubari from his free-kick three minutes later either, as his excellent effort whistled inches past the top left corner of goal.
Half-time came with the Birds unable to put a dent in the scoreline, which had
Dan Alstani swop Zubari and Chia onto the wings for a fresh perspective. It would be the end of the line for
Zaini Zainuddin Junaidi too, as he went off to give his former academy mate
Virgil Huang his senior debut. Foxt head coach Matīss Tīvelis would not be idle either, and the Latvian ordered Vodyakhin to the right wing in response, before soon replacing him with Guam midfielder Austin Garner after Vodyakhin had indicated an issue.
This was about when the Birds appeared to have figured the Foxt press out to an extent, with Hwang and Thach indeed looking far more at home in a central position. Hwang was particularly effective as he made himself the fulcrum of an extended series of passes, which had the home team lose their shape for once. The final blow arrived as Hwang squeezed a through ball just outside Arsen Vovnenko's range, right where
Hisham Zubari wanted it for a first-time shot high into the roof of the net.
Grilled Birds were thus level, and nobody enjoyed that more than Zubari, for whom the earlier penalty miss had obviously still stung. Encouraged, Alstani would make his first substitution of the day, taking
Mohsen El Khateeb off for
Genki Nagano, who would make only his second appearance after his serious ankle injury at the beginning of the month. Genki still did not seem fully mobile as he fumbled his initial touch, but recovered well after that.
Not to be upstaged, Tīvelis expended his remaining subs for Kamil Medvedev and Valentin Kruk, as Arosio and Tsytsyn took their leave. That recharged their pressing intensity while not doing too much to help cohesion, with more gaps beginning to show in the Foxt formation. Hwang was the first to try and take advantage, as he floated up in the 66th minute in anticipation of service.
Virgil Huang obliged with a gem of a pass splitting two defenders, and Hwang put in a great-looking lob that only just came off the woodwork.
That did get Huang a thumbs-up from the Birds Number Nine, which had the youngster appear overawed for an instant. Grilled Birds were still not ahead, however, and Marenčík for one was happy for it to stay that way. The Foxt captain somehow held Thach's run back whilst having it go unnoticed by the match officials, with fellow veteran Medvedev no less sly in his holding-up actions towards contributing to their press.
Extra time looked more than likely, if not necessarily to the home team's advantage from how some of their players were slowing, were it not for an unexpected breakthrough in the 78th minute.
Lim An Keng appeared to have lost out to Medvedev then, but
Kendell El Khateeb wound up retrieving the ball with several Foxt players overextending themselves. The race was then on as Kendell knocked it past the hesitant Vovnenko and ran, and he ended up finishing it himself over
Mason Glendinning's not-unwarranted call for a pass.
