Barca Busted
Tian Takes Over
Grilled Birds headed off what could have been a tricky fixture against Ang Mo Kio's top representatives FC Barca Singapore, and outdid themselves with a resounding 5-1 home result. Not only that, it was achieved without last week's comeback trail hero
Rinor Isufi, who watched from the bench as vice-captain
Zhao Jing Wei stepped in at withdrawn forward beautifully.
There was no official explanation forthcoming for why Isufi had been left out, which generated a minor buzz when the lineups were revealed. Excepting that, though,
Djan Bacelar couldn't be faulted for lack of attacking intent, as he returned
Ang Leong Kum and
Low Aik Jia to lend Grilled's left a sharp edge indeed.
Ling Fuquan was ruled out through injury, leaving
Lee Lee Hao to fill in, and as acting skipper for the day, no less.
For FC Barca Singapore, who remain in the Ruby Challenger Cup, they were bent on stifling it and snatching goals on the break, from their formation. The wing tandem of Mikhail Smirnov and Georg Weidl appeared their main outlet, with Finnish forward Tero Kaukonen playing off Jørgen Ove's creativity.
There would be little of either on display for a bit, as the visitors followed instructions to the tee. Hong Kim Feng directed a suffocating all-out press that killed a number of Grilled's build-ups in their infancy, though
Ang Leong Kum did manage a third minute effort that was on target. It achieved little more than a statistic, however.
This was not FC Barca's usual mode of play, and it took its toll on the players perhaps swifter than their local head coach Suradhish Acharya had expected. While Grilled came nowhere close in a frustrating first twenty minutes, FC Barca let up significantly after that, as they gave in to their own attacking instincts.
Zhao Jing Wei began to enjoy himself in his free role, as he gave free rein to his experience. After a dangerous cross that could have come good had Benedetto Diletti not thrown
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim off in the air, Zhao decided to take it himself in the 29th minute, and calmly got Grilled off to the races by slotting it beyond Edmund Crean, with Osvaldo Argappio committing himself too early.
FC Barca Singapore more or less reverted to their normal game after that, and Smirnov duly got
Wong Ping Shun in trouble with his mazy runs. The fans perked up at the sea change in pace, and in the ensuing to-and-fro, the Birds landed the next blow.
Gene Filippone found himself with room to operate after a chaotic rearguard action, and scored from a rare foray into the opposition penalty area.
There was little between the sides at this point, and FC Barca Singapore were well entitled to hit back in double-quick time. They had created several openings of their own before this, but none quite as good as Vikas Alluri's slide-rule through ball to Jørgen Ove, who lured
Wong Tian Han out just enough to place a successful lob over him, and beyond the recovering
Clark Won.
The visitors were certainly up for equalising before half-time, but Hong Kim Feng played his hand prematurely, and had to cut
Lee Lee Hao down. Alluri responsibly stood in front of the ball to prevent it from being taken... or so he thought. With one of those rare flashes of invention that have caught his imagination throughout his career, Lee knocked it against the FC Barca man and took off, leaving a stunned field behind.
Before they could recover, he had passed it on to
Tian Yonghang, who duly completed the unorthodox if very effective maneuver. Referee Paolo Siro himself seemed slightly taken aback, but saw no reason to disallow the goal, after a short talk with the relevant linesman.
Liow Kok Aik was introduced for veteran Bernard Wu soon after the break, as FC Barca Singapore tried to push the issue. However, while Liow did provide some needed dazzle on the right, it would be Grilled who would stretch their lead.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim had mistimed his header in the 64th minute, but in a stroke of great good fortune, Diletti came flying by and sent it flying in off his own crossbar.
The visitors looked slightly discouraged at that, and with the important Ruby Challenger Cup quarterfinals against Marina Sailors up next, Acharya began hedging his bets. As Mohd Safri pressed his claim for the goal, the FC Barca head coach quietly called Kaukonen off, replacing him with utility man Cheong Jian Yi, in a clear sign of shifting to damage limitation.
Cheong turned out to be pretty good at defending from the front, and for a while it looked as if 4-1 would indeed be the final score. Their stubbornness would only wane in the dying minutes, and after Zhao had clattered the bar with a long-range thunderbolt,
Tian Yonghang got his second in the 85th after Low's acceleration took him past a worn-out Argappio.
Neeraj Muthyala would then get his competitive debut, coming on alongside
Rashid bin Ahmad in an enjoyable substitution.
