Global Hos
Farmer Bunnies took their opening round defeat in The Global Trophy well in stride, but
Aitykul Zaripbekov probably spoke for his teammates when he insinuated that the referee had not given them their due. "Those cards should have went our way, I thought, even if we can't complain about the penalty. Birds probably deserved it though, good for them."
Chan Ze Han would be magnanimous in victory, and waved off talk of his scoring drought - which some may regard as concerning - instead choosing to praise the Buns defence. "Their new chaps are not bad at all, really. Ong has a good head on him, you can tell that within a few minutes. He just needs to bulk up a bit more."
Grognards de Paris head up Group E with a 3-0 win over Romania's TSV Ottobrunn Fussball, with the French former Trophée Pantelis winners riding on a brace by Macedonian veteran Toshe Shutovski, if admittedly against a reduced Ottobrunn team after some passport issues. It remains to be seen if they will extend to Grilled's fixture against them.
These past few days have seen former Buns trainee and national youth striker Ho Ah Kian move from Swiss club Culés to Turkish fifth divisioners Alaçatıspor for S$8.5 million, still in search of his first big silverware. He may yet be followed by longtime club and national teammate Ho Dong Ze - coincidentally a Chicken Wings product - who cost Culés nearly S$29 million as a 20 year-old, following a record S$9.7 million pricetag as a fresh trainee. They are asking a mere S$18 million for the now-29 year-old, and
Tian Yonghang admitted an unseemly temptation here.
"Would we love to have the Dong back? Of course!" Tian commented. "Sadly, it's not gonna do either of us much good, at this time."