Omnia Potence
Angel Gains Wings
Balestier semiprofessional side Omnia Utd provided the Birds with a scare, as they briefly went ahead against a relatively lightweight Grilled XI. Happily, Grilled pulled through with Portuguese forward
Ângelo Cunha Simões a revelation.
Han Lik-Tsun might have been swayed by something he saw in training, as he started both Lihai and Simões together for the first time ever, dropping Salieri to the bench. Simões relished his start, and attacked a corner kick so fiercely that he got tangled up in the net. His misheader was not completely in vain, as fellow debutant
Chan Woon Jin stuck a foot out reflexively and saw it go in.
Grilled thought that they were on easy street after that, and Omnia's gutsy representatives punished them for it.
Lee Han Lai gave up chasing Liu Xiandong far too early, leaving the winger with all the time in the world to get the ball to Wee Tze Cheng, who picked his spot well.
Now on level terms, Omnia cranked the pace up another notch, and a few minutes later Ahmad Izwan bin Sulaiman skinned
Chan Woon Jin on the left side. Shun Jin did well to keep his footing as the winger feinted this way and that, and even palmed away the first shot, but He Wenyan followed up and powered the rebound home.
It could well have gotten dicey for the inexperienced Grilled team had they not hit back immediately, and thankfully the old head of Mirchev was on hand to do what was necessary. Lihai supplied the lob, and the Bulgarian forward-turned-defender soared to finish it to calm fluttering hearts.
The Birds had learnt their lesson, and put in the honest hard work required to pull away.
Martin Torsson went to air to guide yet another header past Wei Yun, before Lihai marked another Cup outing with a neat goal.
Salieri took Torsson's centre forward spot for the second half, but was largely anonymous as Simões took centrestage, grabbing a brace by the 70th minute as he intimidated the Omnia defenders with a very direct approach. He didn't go quite as far as Dorogan, who chopped Nor Zeland bin Othman down and was booked for it.
The match continued with Omnia throwing the stoutly built Tan How Jing on in an optimistic bid to contain Grilled's Portugeuse livewire, but he was hardly up to the task as Mirchev fired in a seventh for Grilled before Simões smacked a couple more in.
