Some Who Wander Are Lost
Dream Of Tao
The young Birds had to survive a torrid first half against amateur side Clementi Wanderers, who despite being composed largely of retirees, taught their far sprightlier counterparts a lesson in tactics being finally surrendering to Father Time in the second half.
Grilled's reserves never actually fell behind, though, and as a matter of fact led all the way after Indian playmaker
Mayur Gudivada recorded his maiden professional goal with a sneaky free-kick chipped over the Wanderers' defensive wall. Despite the surprise factor, it would still likely not have gone in had 58 year-old goalkeeper Samsul bin Hamidi not stumbled.
It began to look like another routine early-round slaughter after
Neo Da Teck sped right down the middle in the 24th minute to plant a grounder past the rather immobile Samsul, but the overconfident lads were shocked two minutes later when the tricky Ma Shi-He shuffled the ball expertly around him and turned a completely fooled
Hung Wee Li, who was young enough to be his grandson. Central defender and erstwhile hawker Tao Yang picked that time to nip in behind the defence, and sent the partisan home support at Clementi Road into an explosion of joy with a pinpoint finish past Ho.
Grilled were clearly shaken up by that bit of resistance, and struggled to piece moves together; the Wanderers looked the deadlier team, until Gudivada gave his side some breathing space by pinging in a penalty after a sneaky tug to
Tang Hengcai's jersey by Song Ba-Tuoc as the hot prospect geared up for a header was spotted by the referee.
The goal came not a moment too soon, as the hosts found the mix of intelligent passing and clever economical movement that had seen them overpower a far younger Alvianto United 6-2 in the last round. Grilled's complacent midfield was unable to make up lost ground after Wanderers changed gears without warning and made a well-coordinated push upfield, and they had the numbers to swamp the defence, with the 59 year-old Tao Yang again hitting the target.
Although the Birds held on to their 3-2 lead at half-time, there was no mistaking which team was the happier one, with passers-by quite reasonably concluding that the side in their travelling whites were on the end of a hiding. The score stayed that way as the game passed the hour mark, with an increasingly frazzled Grilled side looking one mistake away from crumbling, and only a fortunate wild swing by
Wardi Azhari that happened to blow into the top corner staved the nerves off finally.
That was not the only factor that presaged Grilled's domination, though. Despite their best efforts, the Wanderers' oldies were visibly on their last legs, unable even to produce the occasional burst of speed that kept Grilled's players honest. This was sensed by the youngsters, who slowly turned the screws, and No. 19
Tang Hengcai added to his qualification goal with a brace in four minutes, mercilessly taking advantage of the flagging defenders with brute physicality.
The match was finally sewn up, and
Hilal Bakhtiar knocked a seventh in, his first since his transfer, before a triple substitution that saw
Walter Ross,
Edvaldo Mourão and
Rosendo Chinchay get to run about a little, the latter in goal.
