Seventeen Without Reply
Today made a welcome change for the S-League after last week's loss to the Romanian II.2, as all three Singaporean clubs maintained clean sheets in dominating victories. Sarcastic Fringeheads would even go one better than the Birds, as they destroyed Olympia Yaoundé 8-0; Swedish Number Nine Finn Karlsson was in an uncompromising mood, as he completed a hat-trick right before the end.
-= Manchester United =- were not quite as overbearing as either Fringeheads or Grilled in their own test versus two-time Cameroon Consolante winners Na Madraí Camarúnacha, but their 2-0 result had to be something their fans could relish, after their numerous stumbles in other competitions. Beau Gilmont and Viktor Saunov got the scoring done early on, while Camarúnacha's Makadji Haman got close several times, but was ultimately unable to beat Izydor Tovtuk when it counted.
Hilal Bakhtiar thought it the right time to reveal that the Birds had actually been considering United's 32 year-old Englishman Clarke Singal, after he had become available last week, but eventually decided to pass on the possibility, with Singal moving on to Italian fifth division club Storomon for just over S$7 million. "Clarke would have improved our squad no doubt, but he was just a little heavy on the years, to make for good future-proofing."
Farmer Bunnies would have to sit out II.4's clash against the Egyptian Dawry El Momtaz, which was perhaps just as well, as Club Dinosauria, Benfleet Branch and Joker 9 were all felled. The Deinos did the best in the 1-2 loss to seven-time Challenger Cup winners Ba7bek, while Vergnacchi d'Egitto and Cassina de' Pecchi swept their respective opponents.
Grilled International tasted defeat for a second time already in the league, being surprised at home by roter stern ghana. On the face of it, this had to be a grinding win for International, but their visitors would meld an exceptionally-stubborn defence - even by their own standards - with opportunistic finishing. Dennis Owusu would invite what would be the winner on a counter off
Safari bin Hj Jali's attempt in the 66th minute, and Florian Heiligenstein eventually saved
Wang Hanxuan's last-gasp strike.
Didi Reidenbach, who had tried
Tommy Dongelmans in his position for this game, would be further convinced of the need for a permanent specialist, but remained constrained by finances. "You know it, I know it, everybody knows it - but there's no cash to fix it now."
