The Defence Rests
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Still hurting from their weekend whipping by BCFC, the Birds relieved themselves somewhat in Brunei by dealing III.9 champions FC Ørbitron Defenders an 8-0 plastering, but it smelt a little of overcompensation as the Defenders sent out most of their second team. Marquee Finnish striker Teemu Kärhä sat this out totally, leaving the luckless Hj Haszemi bin Hj Jailani to shoulder the burden of keeping Grilled at bay.
The plight of the teams could not have been more different and yet similar, with Defenders surely looking forward to their upcoming promotion qualifier against Young Boys Tafers, and the Birds dreading the same against singnet_utd. This did not however have an impact on the field, which had Peruvian midfield general Luis Miguel Lévano getting overrun from the get-go.
The Defenders, despite being affiliated with Swiss club BSC Himmelsstürmer, boasted no Swiss nationals in their ranks; in an admirable nod to domestic development, Lévano was the only starting non-national for the hosts, with Portuguese regular goalkeeper Camilo Oliveira left out in favour of young Vincent bin Daniel.
bin Daniel would let in his first of the day after eleven minutes, as
Lee Lee Hao gave full rein to his attacking instincts in the forward position. Mohd Safri himself would have been proud at how he chested the ball down off
Rinor Isufi's challenging pass, before turning and angling it over the keeper.
Hj Haszemi was not happy about that, pulling teammate Aqmal Hakeem aside for a short chitchat on how Lee was afforded that much space. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't getting better, and after a booking for trying to delay the game, he had to watch as
Rashid bin Ahmad near shattered the crossbar with a blast from some thirty yards, that ended up bouncing down inside the goal.
This became 4-0 before the half-time whistle, and Defenders could still imagine that they had gotten off lightly. A number of poor strikes led into
Low Aik Jia's mesmerising jig past two men and then bin Daniel, who had his moment with a spine-twisting save against
Pompeo Bellamoli's stooping header... only it see it turned in just as acrobatically by
Lee Lee Hao, who was enjoying himself.
Half-time saw
Gene Filippone substitute for
Rashid bin Ahmad, before proceeding to remind the coaches just why they hadn't been picking him. Hj Junaidi bin Zulfadly wasn't able to take full advantage, though, and it would be Grilled who recaptured the momentum.
Low Aik Jia left poor Mohd Zamri bin Mahdi on his backside with a deceptively guileless stop-start, and meaningfully pointed to himself after rolling it in. Assistant coach Luis Alcántara, never one to want for a reply, wryly gave Low the thumbs-up at that.
It then became a tale of redemption for
Clark Won, whose star had waned in recent months; a series of decent but boring stints in midfield had been followed by undesirably exciting ones at the back. He might be hinting that neither are his true strengths with his goals in the 60th and 64th minutes, both coming after some nice control off speedy passes.
The second of those saw the very competitive Hj Haszemi try to cut out the through ball with his upper arm, which was spotted by the linesman. This was his ticket out of the game, which continued with
Gene Filippone sweeping home an eighth after Timbang bin Hj Shahdini risked a square ball straight across his box.
Unexpectedly, it would be designated point man
Leong Wan Kang who would end up dry, his 76th minute shot only managing to bruise Mohd Zamri bin Mahdi.
Domenik Bögengang replaced
Lee Lee Hao for the last ten minutes, but his advancing years weighed heavily, and
Sandy Fu's short appearance brought little either.
