Fanatics Rebuffed
Raider Remco
While a good proportion of local sides were fighting for their futures this rainy November morning, the Birds had the luxury of introducing newly-promoted Cameroon Division Two side The New Real Madrid Fanatics to the Lion City. Fanatics had won all fourteen league games as they conquered III.16, but would find this mixed Grilled lineup far tougher nuts to crack.
With a view towards preserving strength for the coming season, while not letting the men go soft,
Djan Bacelar declared that he would split the squad into two halves of approximately equal ability, and play them seperately during the off-season. Today, it was
Tian Yonghang's faction making an appearance, as he started alongside
Zhao Jing Wei and
Wong Ping Shun in the centre.
Fanatics too were not all full potential, with Estonian winger Vyacheslav Kholomenkov a stark omission as Apolinarijus Snetkovas too sought to inspect his troops under non-typical conditions. Regular captain and team focal point Bruno Tunesi was in his usual lone forward role, though, and ably supported by Portuguese second-in-command José Bastos.
The exhibition attracted nearly exactly 4000 despite the unpromising weather, made even less compelling by the sides' defensive stances. The players had an air of being slightly too careful not to make mistakes while under assessment, which translated into a dearth of excitement bar some speculative ultra long-ranged efforts from Yarden Lupu.
The Birds remained low-key as
Leong Wan Kang struggled to make an impression against Fanatics' three-man central defence by himself, and it was not until
Woon Shun An got used to racing down the right that Grilled started to look menacing. Twenty-two minutes in, Woon slid one through to the sharp-eyed Tian, but Alessandro Toniutti displayed his pedigree with a stunning one-handed stop.
Woon was just getting comfortable with his new position, though, and new trainee Daniel Twumasi would be shaken off by the former national player more than once. The breakthrough, when it came, arrived via the unlikely source of
Colby Awyong, who kept the ball firmly on the ground as he dribbled inside to score.
Fanatics were not without their own inspiration, as Bastos acquitted himself respectably against Grilled's top-drawer midfield. The combined watchfulness of Zhao and Wong was barely sufficient to check Bastos, who nearly bagged one with a no-holds-barred header attempt in the 44th minute.
Krystian Rykowski took that one head-on and could hardly be faulted for not managing to hold the ball, but Twumasi's swift follow-up was read by
Rashid bin Ahmad.
The Grilled players were adamant that that collision was a foul, but referee Raanan Ohev Otcha saw nothing wrong, and it was all Bacelar could do to take Rykowski off as a precaution.
Dan Seng would not be tested until after Grilled had doubled their lead through the always-positive
Remco van der Ban, who created the chance for himself after lots of seemingly-pointless slogging about the opponents' box. Fanatics had countered rapidly after Woon's cross was cleared long, and Seng kept his calm to take Tunesi's goalbound lob down.
The mud made it hard-going for both parties, and Tian looked really haggard by the time the last quarter rolled around. Remco was still going strong, however, and with Woon still plugging away on the right side too, the Spanish utility man kept himself in the spotlight with a neat nutmeg on Toniutti.
This was about it for all involved, and Rashid and Leong seemed more relieved than anything to come off as the lashing rain made the friendly more of an exercise in endurance than anything resembling football.
