Four Left Shamrock
Homeboys Shine
The latest World Battle has seen no less than six clubs from II.2 sign up, United Legends FC and FC Jurong Rovers being the exceptions to the competitive fervour. The first round would return a 3-2 aggregate victory against the Northern Irish II.1, and Grilled Birds did their part with the largest winning margin for the Singaporean entrants, in clearing former Northern Ireland Consolation Cup winners Shamrock city FC 4-0.
Shamrock's larger-than-life player-coach Will Imray did not include latest signing Simon Niklasson in the squad, though to be fair the Swedish forward was probably surplus given the young-and-old strike pairing of Coby Dickens-McNair and Ekdar Tolebayev, the latter being 36 years of age but hardly less productive than when in his prime - on the supporting end, that is. Homegrown midfielder Ellis Haynes headed up a multifaceted midfield along with Dutch captain Diederick Romijn, with tall Israeli sweeper Gadiel Einik charged with handling any crosses that made it through.
For all of Shamrock's preparations, they would make it but two minutes before falling behind, as Grilled Birds went for one of their rare opening charges. This flustered the opponents, who had evidently been expecting something more conventional from the Birds, and they cleared the first wave with some difficulty.
Lim An Keng retrieved the ball in his own half and sent it straight back where it came - and
Hwang Teck Fu's take on the half-volley just about made it past the diving Armin Krahn.
Romijn did well to calm his teammates as Hwang celebrated somewhat excessively at the corner flag, and Shamrock would be the more dangerous side going into the next twenty minutes or thereabouts. Ellis Haynes would create a few good openings, but the Birds covered - if barely - each time. Their spell broke after Reiner Dinkelaker's card for going in high on
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko, and
Genki Nagano tested Armin Krahn with a wickedly-dipping free-kick following a long wait.
It was still anybody's game at this point, and had the Northern Irish club been more clinical, they might yet have gotten something out of it. Tolebayev should frankly have at least got it on target after being confronted with a largely-open goal in the 33rd, only to go for the spectacular and power it off the woodwork.
Phillip Nagata picked up the loose ball on the edge of his own penalty area, and a few accurate passes later,
Chia Kwang Tse made it two after cutting past Gadiel Einik on his right.
The second half began slowly with the Shamrocks picking up the pace gradually, but as already happened before, they would come close only to be taken by surprise on the retreat.
Ananda Hettiarachchi lost his composure for once as he tugged Dickens-McNair's jersey in the 67th minute, which had
Chad Thach nearly score an own goal as the forward took it quickly.
Genki Nagano saved Thach's bacon then, and the ultra-long low clearance was just what
Lim An Keng wanted - three-nil!
Imray's response would be to take fullback Kevin Bryan off for Ferhan Abide in an attempt to add legs to his team, which did have a brief effect. A spectacular surge from right defence had Shamrock penetrate deep into the Birds' half for once, but
Radomil Marcol did his job with a superb left-handed save off Dickens-McNair's snap flyer.
Dan Alstani used the corner to bring
Mohd Marzuki Khairul on for Hwang, and Marzuki duly went on to score with his first possession after Grilled broke forward in strength.
The match would get a little bad-tempered as it drew to a close, with some Shamrock players not taking well to
Phillip Nagata's supposed showboating on the touchline. Things nearly came to a head with
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko's late challenge on Reiner Dinkelaker in the 80th minute, which required several men to separate the two before it came to blows. The yellow card didn't prevent Hein from trying to rub it in with a good attempt in the 89th that Thach forced a double save out of Krahn from, with Ekdar Tolebayev also going into the referee's book for trying to delay the restart.
