About A Thousandth
Both Grilled Birds and Grilled International finished around 1000th of 26300 participants in this edition of the Supporter Week Trophy, with the Birds moreover achieving the highest finish of all Singaporean entrants in 945th, ahead of FC Marttaliitto in 1041st, frunzelax in 1432th, and recent Singapore Cup winners HEBFC Tonners FC in 2516th. "It may not mean much... but to us, it does." club captain
Genki Nagano teased.
It could have been more too, but the Birds hit a roadblock against Hungarian II.4 competitors Uptempo Hardcore FC., who kept them to a 2-2 draw despite Genki and then
Lim An Keng twice giving them the lead. Hardcore would not veer from their philosophy of sitting back despite that, and equalized for a second time through homegrown playmaker Fabrícius Budai, 13 minutes from full time.
The Birds' hopes were then done for good as Morocco III.8 club FC Desert County Landouille smashed them 4-1 with with dynamic strike duo Edgar Dehard and Kasey Grimshaw picking up two each, to
Hwang Teck Fu's 71st minute brute-forcing. Landouille left it late, that said, and elevated fast breaks to a fine art there.
With nothing left to play for but pride, Grilled Birds managed a 3-1 curtain closer versus Czech IV.15 side FC Banik Goofy, with
Chad Thach (twice) and
Chia Kwang Tse picking their 4-4-2 apart by the 39th minute. Taiwanese former Liechtenstein Täli-Cup winner Ye Jiali sidled in on a central counterattack in the 61st minute, making them certainly the Birds' bane today.
Grilled International kept the drama going a little longer as they started out with a close 3-2 result against Portuguese V.127 risers Lencos Brancos, with the on-fire
Remond Bergervoet lighting up with a brace - although they looked nervous in the last nine minutes, after Atanasii Vygovskyi had pulled Brancos within a single goal with a brave header. Carlos Infante Carreira might have tied it up too, but for
Darshana De Abrew clawing his free-kick away, if barely.
There would be no playoffs for International either, alas, as Faroese II.3 club Dan King cleared them 2-0 with early and late goals from national stars Anton á Bakkanum and Jørgen Persson respectively. A final match with a similarly disspirited Spanish V.14 outfit La Taronja Mecanica F.C. followed, which ended in a drab 1-1 that had International waste a score of opportunities, for a 1295th placing. In the end, they had to depend on
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan's 32nd minute tap-in, with their opponents answering two minutes into the second half from Vaikko Võsu.
No such excitement for Farmer Bunnies, who ended 7521st, if still on a positive 5-2-3 record. It could have been better, but for successive 0-1 defeats, first to Slovakian V.194 champions 1902 Semper Nova F.C., and then to Canadian IV.30 entrants Royal Castor Club. They did end on something of a high with three goals past German VI.672 side FC St. Pauli Rabauken, as
Prakash Bhujbal,
Guan Ming Kum and
Gabriel Priebe did the sendoff.
