An Epic End
The defeat was hard to swallow for the Birds' contingent, seeing as to how they took their time vacating their seats after a very draining 120 minutes of football. Grilled skipper
Tian Yonghang knew what he had to do, and gently ushered his teammates - a few blinking back tears - to show their appreciation with a unified group bow.
Tian then made it a point to absolve
Clark Won of any responsibility for missing. "It was absolutely not his fault. In fact, he was not expected to take it at all. He was simply the first to step up. Obviously, he took it very seriously, despite going for a chip - it would have gone in nine times out of ten, their goalkeeper was nowhere near it."
"Of course, I think we deserved to go through on balance, but Edbe FC were quite worthy too. It was a bit of a shame that the weather didn't cooperate for us to produce a showpiece, but there was plenty of heart and guts on display today."
Disappointed Birds supporters appeared to have laid the blame at the doorstep of referee Oliver Skov, with half a dozen threads analyzing the 27th-minute penalty that he gave springing up on the official forums. "That was a travesty!" one member seethed indignantly. "Firlit was obviously looking for it, and the referee bought it hook, line and sinker."
For all that, this does not change the fact that it will be Edbe FC who will be challenging The Void Deck for the Sapphire Challenger Cup next Wednesday. Grilled's defeat further means that the S-League has been denied a potential sweep of all national cups on offer, with Be Champions FC and Isle of Flames having advanced to the Ruby and Emerald finals respectively.
The grandpappy of them all, the Singapore Cup, has already been lifted by singnet_utd, who shut out an insipid Pudgy Penguins, 2-0, in the final. Analysts had suggested before the match that the effect of the thrashing that Penguins received could well have shaken them severely, and it was probably also unfortunate that their best openings fell to wingback Mounir Jemâa.
