Buggies Bugged
Feng Again
Grilled got back to winning ways as they soundly thrashed Yellow Buggies 0-6 in the cup, although that hardly reflected the flow of the game as a whole as the hosts had their fair share of possession. Unfortunately for them, they had set up to play on the break, and had little recourse against a Grilled side whom were more than happy to soak up attacks.
The Birds had it the better as they managed a few reverse counterattacks powered by lung-bursting runs the length of the field, with Pakistani defender
Nawaz Talib especially up for a fight. Talib forced S$6.7 million rated goalie Christophe Garreau into a world-class save just five minutes in, and later squared the ball into the side-netting. The Buggies' best performer in the first half was also a defender, Gil Amdurski, who engineered quite a few good moves.
The half was heading towards a goalless draw after
Sándor Deme was a fraction late to react to a wonderful lob by Árva over the defence that would have sent him clear, but the Polish lad, extremely active after his promotion to the position of winger vacated by Chowdhury, made up for it the very next minute with a scrappy header in at the near post.
That signalled a wholesale collapse by the Buggies, as Rotteveel added to his assist from a corner kick with a strong and simple run past the tiring Amdurski to slot home the second.
Feng Darong made no mistake from a too-casual square ball across defence, skipping past Garreau as he went to ground, to make it three.
That was rather too much to take for the home team's skipper, Burak Dayende, who was already simmering after an unproductive half chasing lost causes up front. The Danish star forward lost it after he was heckled off the ball by a dominant Árva, and retaliated with a crunching one-footed tackle that never came close to getting the ball. It was a certain red card, and Dayende must have recognized that it had thrown away his team's vanishing hopes as he shamefacedly passed his armband to Daniel Tranby.
The second half was focused on damage limitation for the hosts, as they were severely hampered by the lack of a release outlet up the field after going a man down. 17 year-old
Hu Huihong must have thought it a brilliant opportunity to claim his first senior goal as he made his way down the middle, only to lift his effort high.
Hu would get a booking at least, as he crashed uncontrollably into Guy Château in a chase near the corner flag. The Frenchman appeared to be unconscious after hitting his head on the turf, but recovered and was up and running in seconds to applause from an appreciative crowd. Branbilla was even left in the dust after Château challenged him in a race minutes later, as the Swiss midfielder wilted under the unrelenting heat.
Subri bin Ku Zainol got on the end of a Rotteveel free-kick to head it across the breadth of the penalty area for Spirig to make it 4-0, but the goal was almost forgotten as
Sándor Deme twisted his ankle horribly trying to change his direction after a sharp feint by Pereguda. His foot was visibly out of joint, and the game was immediately stopped as medics rushed up to treat the fallen player.
Quah Han Kok came in and immediately scored with his first touch, a very hard stunner that had Garreau rooted. Mindful of the circumstances that led to him being on the pitch on the first place, Quah's celebrations were respectfully muted. That didn't stop Grilled from making it six in the fourth minute of injury time, however, as Rotteveel finished professionally to bring his tally in the cup this season to ten already.
