Titans Tempered
Freak Clash
The Birds scraped by Division Four side T I T A N S of Changi, as they were nearly made to pay for spurning a slew of potential chances. Although the hosts were undoubtedly the underdogs, they performed close to their best and could conceivably have pulled the rug from under Grilled.
Not much occured early on as Grilled's tender strikeforce kept making all the wrong decisions, even as the first-team midfield toiled to supply them with ammunition. Safrinho, who struck on his debut against A1-paper, was culpable for some of the worst midjudgments, including a couple of moves where a simple pass would almost certainly have resulted in a goal.
Grilled finally clicked in the 35th minute, as Han Kok held off passing to the slightly confused Safrinho, and instead gave it to Branbilla to carry forward. The Swiss midfielder probably expected a return ball when he left it to Mohd Safri, but Branbilla couldn't have been too disappointed when the young star's instincts took over, as he propelled a stinging drive past a stunned Dieter Böckmann in the T I T A N S goal.
That lifted a weight off the Grilled players, and gave them licence to express themselves more freely; Darong in particular was unshackled from the thankless task of making laps up and down the right touchline, and with some truly astounding skill took Cheong Ting Qiang completely out of the equation in a 40th minute attack. Unfortunately, he didn't look up to see two of his strikers waving frantically in the box, and skied a rather arrogant attempt at goal.
The Birds continued turning the screw, and they must have thought that another one was on the cards when they won a free-kick on the edge of the box. They tried to be too clever by half this time, though, and after a laughable attempt by Safrinho and Simões to share the ball, Böckmann simply picked it up and tossed it to Mohamad Feriza.
The T I T A N S' pacy forward wasn't about to be caught by Grilled's overcommitted midfield after he got his nose ahead, and free-kick taker
Ivaylo Mirchev tried but couldn't quite match his torrid pace. Valdir was caught in the middle, and could do little but fling himself uselessly at Feriza's passed shot.
Valdir wouldn't have much time to vent at his teammates, as the hosts attempted to press their momentary advantage. Fleming lifted it through and not one but two T I T A N S players broke Grilled's amateurish offside trap and bore down on goal - but they were facing an extremely determined goalkeeper who was not going to be second-best again so soon.
The outcome was a case of three irresistable forces meeting each other, as Valdir, Feriza and Colombian attacking midfielder Dennis Huel collided at the same point. Huel got the worst of it as he was sandwiched between the other two, but both Valdir and Feriza too had to be helped off.
Lim Shun Jin was thrown on, and the Grilled midfield immediately looked rather less eager to venture upfront, despite the tie still being in the balance. Fortunately, T I T A N S was less of a force without Feriza, as his replacement Tian Hanwen was rather more sluggish.
Despite that, Grilled had more than enough chances to put the contest to bed, and Dorogan could only bemoan his luck as he had yet another near-certain goal miraculously averted by a fingertip save. The Birds did avoid the unwanted extra-time, though, as the impressive Branbilla topped off an all-round performance with a solidly hit winner.
