Hardly Peaceful
Yao-Pang Finisher
Grilled travelled to the People's Republic of China for the first time in their history and engaged the Doves of II.4 in friendly battle. The Doves were fittingly defence-oriented and maintained a tight five-man backline, and it soon became apparent that the bumbling combination of Stern and Kolesov would be hard pressed to find their footing. Grilled nearly stole a prime free-kick in the second minute when
Shen Kek-Tjiang confounded both friend and foe by breaking upfield recklessly, but Yao-Pang went for the ball legally. Kek-Tjiang tumbled hard and got booked for protesting loudly. New signing
Antonio Fernández Riviera opened accounts for Grilled when an awkward bounce saw the ball brush past Peace Dove's teenage Turkish sweeper Özgür Karamürsel's arm, and the referee played the law to the letter by pointing to the spot. Riviera went at Ma Gak-Wee a mite overconfidently, and fortunately the goalie took his rather transparent bait. Kristoffer Trangård suffered at fellow Swede's
Peter Åhsten's feet, and Dove's midfielder Tomas Blomin spurned the best chance of the match when he headed badly with Bao-Tam vulnerable. South African right-back Danny Barker got booked just before half-time for a late challenge on
Li Ze.
Grilled's second-stringers showed that they had not been working on their endurance, as Riviera in particular slowed to a crawl. Trangård banged one of his trademark power headers left of the far post, before Blomin made amends as he correctly ascertained that Riviera was hardly in condition to help out in defence, running past the Spaniard for an easy equaliser. Trangård almost blew the game for Peace Dove in the 84th minute, when he played a weak past square across the defence for Stern to trap. Guan He just managed to hustle the quick Canadian off the ball. Grilled reeled at Dove's late onslaught, and the weak left flank was exposed yet again, this time for defender Shao Yao-Pang to knock home the winner.
Shen Kek-Tjiang got sent off in the process of preventing a probable third, and Grilled ended the game just a single goal down.
