Belgian K.O.
An Keng At It
Tian Yonghang had okayed Grilled Birds' participation in the King of Football Cup as an additional tune-up for the season, and their first Group J match saw them shutter Belgian IV.57 opponents langkousjes FC 7-0. The S$9 million inclusion of their two recent buys - Tanzanian defender Ibrahim Nsanzugwanko and German attacker Julian Hochseilgarten - did next to nothing to close the gap between the teams, partly due to them not having the time to truly gel with their new colleagues yet.
Unofficial tourney this might be, but both Grilled and langkousjes were not leaving much on the table, with the Birds putting out what was basically their best eleven. langkousjes had Canadian Number Nine Alden Young in what was on paper a very respectable front two, but young reserve goalkeeper Gilian Dylik was a clear weak link, what with first-choice Austrian custodian Günther Swoboda still recovering from a gashed calf sustained during last week's friendly against Greek club Dias Neas Smirnis.
For all that, langkousjes' busy press restrained the Birds safely for the first ten minutes, and they would even get the first shot on target, a powerful left-footed drive from just outside the box by Italian midfielder Bruno Endrizzi, that
Radomil Marcol did well to parry. The Belgians turned out to have overextended in creating that chance, and an overloaded rally up the left saw Nsanzugwanko horribly exposed.
Lim An Keng carried on after
Darko Andrović engaged the last man, and he would lure Dylik out before planting it calmly at his far post.
langkousjes' close-up marking would be quite a bit less assured after going behind, and Grilled's grinding short passing game would wear them down slowly. Their opponents didn't make it wasy, but mistakes were inevitable from how the Birds counterpressed, and left centreback Martial Brands would be robbed by
Chad Thach for the second goal in the 21st minute. Two minutes later, there would be no preventing
Gandhik Chitre from expressing himself with a twinkle-toed crossover dribble, and he drew applause from even the home support with his collected shimmy past the goalkeeper as well.
That made it three at half-time, which had
Aw Keng Chuan replace the hardly-worked
Ha Qicai in defence. The spectators wouldn't have long to wait as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul burst in between the defenders to record a fourth on Grilled's first attack of the new half, and
Lim An Keng notched a second for himself 56 minutes in, again linking up splendidly with Andrović to bypass langkousjes' resistance on the left flank.
The Belgian entrants were clearly not enjoying the game by now, with skipper Brands having to quell an argument between his own men. Saudi sweeper Nasser Al-Harbien was pulled off for additional firepower in the form of Italian Number Eight Settimio Gobbetti soon after
Hwang Teck Fu came in for 6-0, but this would only force them to concede a penalty from Brazilian Kaio Barcellos' late running-down of Chitre from behind; This was a job for
Raúl Himadas, and the dual Golden Boot holder did not disappoint with a flashy blast to Dylik's top right hand corner.
