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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 48 | W | 7 - 4 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 44 | W | 1 - 0 | League | | Season 44 | L | 2 - 0 | League |
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Be Entertained
Edbe Edge Thriller
Edbe FC outgunned Grilled Birds and condemned them to a first ever tournament defeat, in a 6-5 extravaganza that had a bit for everyone.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim hit another brace as
Chow Ying Lee passed him the mantle of focal point of the attack, but so did Edbe FC's Eduardo Rodal and Diedrich Bohrenkämper, whose sensational double at the death won it for his team.
There were a number of changes on each side, with Grilled forsaking defence and going for broke with a total football style midfield, with
Abdul bin Jantan and the lesser-seen
Rosendo Chinchay staying slightly behind. Edbe on the other hand dispensed with last edition's two-goal man Pierre-André Maton, shuffling half their side especially in defence, where English defender John Ascot skippered in place of Abdul Halim bin Jantan, no relation to Grilled's version.
Edbe didn't wait for the Birds to get their bearings, and scattered the improvised defence within two minutes -
Paolo Iten and
Abdul bin Jantan were gesticulating to each other to take Julião Arara, leaving him an acre of space to lift a looping cross towards Eduardo Rodal, who flashed it past the advancing
Dexter Stacey.
It was a bad day all around for
Chow Ying Lee, whose form seems to have deserted him all of a sudden, and he was not helped by the waterlogged grass which ruined his speed game. Mohd Safri wasn't too chuffed either, when his goalbound effort came to a splattering stop before crossing the line, allowing the relieved national keeper Pang Xuanjing to gather it in his arms.
Somehow Edbe FC's forwards adapted to the conditions far more quickly, and Giovanni Vrencev advanced at a pace few thought him capable of, certainly not
Abdul bin Jantan, who had been lulled into complacency by the Italian's refusal to run. The finish was just as eye-opening, a strike with the heel.
It just wouldn't go in for Grilled, and after
Rosendo Chinchay had a rising piledriver apparently tipped over by Pang's fingertips, which was missed by the referee, Edbe's two scorers combined brilliantly to find a third. Vrencev hit a random-looking bullet pass across the pitch, straight to Rodal who met it head in with his shin.
The heavens finally smiled on the Birds, with the rain coming to a stop, and Mohd Safri gambolled his way though with admirable nerve direct from the restart. Big
Seytek Djekshenkulov, who had been booked for an unsightly tackle earlier, then cleared all opposition out of his way as he rose to head in a great cross from
Zhu Changchun.
It was a better end to the half than Grilled's supporters had dared contemplate, but it was soon back to the status quo with Seytek and Rosendo this time confused over who was to follow Abdul Samad bin Shaari, who happily took the question out of their hands with a superb solo finish.
Grilled took less time to settle back in, and their increasingly-threatening three-pronged attack began to wind into full gear. For all their groundwork, their third would come from the air again, as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim converted
Paolo Iten's corner with a classy flick of his head.
They were on the verge of turning it around, with
lu Zunwen's sitter making it four-all in the 81st minute, and the team in green always looked the more likely to snatch the points, at least until German midfielder Diedrich Bohrenkämper, who had been unassuming up till then, chose the 86th minute to announce himself with a bang; he slalomed his way fearlessly down the left and placed an inch-perfect drive past Stacey.
The next minute was a brief battle of the Number Eighteens, as Mohd Safri was denied a hat-trick through Pang's reflexes, only for the rebound to hit
Alex Fonseca and then a defender before trickling in - Bohrenkämper would claim victory on this occasion however, as he predicted the trajectory of a free-kick wonderfully to sweep in the sixth and winning goal.
