Completely Crushed
The exit hit
Tian Yonghang particularly hard, with the 26 year-old openly weeping after the fact, and
Zhao Jing Wei, who started despite a light injury, had to struggle to keep his own emotions in check as he comforted his teammate.
"It was close-run, and Saraca deserved it about as much as we did. They were the better at exploiting the opponents' weaknesses, though." former Cup medallist Zhao said. "We should really keep an eye on the likes of Adrian Tang and Lim Wei Feng, they were at a very high level today."
In an interesting development, a Grilled player, speaking on condition of anonymity, took the opportunity to complain about the current training methods. "It's not making an allowance for us playing twice a week. After a month of this, I would say that most of the first teamers are down to 70% of their capacity, perhaps less. We're going to have more trouble until this is sorted out."
The Birds were joined by most of their leaguemates, as newbies are newbies and Young Tigers were beaten by former II.2 alumi Shining Lights and Siegmund United respectively. Rapala FC too were dumped 4-1 by reigning champions Be Champions FC despite going ahead through Pei Jingming, leaving SpartanSG the lone flag-carrier with their one-nil victory over BuddyBoys.
In other notable matches, H20's giant-killing run finally came to an end as Yellow Buggies rallied from two down to prevail 3-2, Giorgio Macchia contributing with a brace. The highest-profile upset then was probably the little-heralded V-ATPase shocking former S-League and II.2 team heimu XI, as Argentine centreback Marcel Yanes put in a superlative shift.
