Nightmare Averted
Ang Pays Price
The Birds avoided what would have been their earliest Cup exit of all time, only edging valiant Division Four contestants nightmare 36543 at the death.
Ang Leong Kum was eager to impress after watching his doppelganger shine against Grilled over the weekend, and did just that with his 84th minute winner, only to be sidelined due to the concussion sustained in the process.
The second Cup round has not been known to give Grilled too much trouble, and on the face of it, the freshly-founded City club were not going to be an exception. With Czech record signing - at the princely sum of S$30000 - Ján Tanistrák out through injury, it was tough to see how they would make it out intact.
What they had, however, was an admirable cohesiveness, and the cool head of German journeyman Stephan Mühlsteg in the middle. Onto his sixth club, Mühlsteg had crisscrossed Europe before landing with nightmare, and his understanding with local wide man Cai Yun Sze was particularly exceptional.
Ang and acting skipper
Hariharan Prabhu were in contrast often on different wavelengths, despite their best intentions, and they were not helped by
Low Aik Jia constantly eating into
Zhao Jing Wei's space on the left. Though Grilled were indisputably the more impressive man-for-man, this never quite seemed as if it would translate into goals, for the first half-hour.
The breakthrough came in an almost grudging manner, more through sheer attrition than any genius on the part of the Birds.
Zhao Jing Wei had parlayed his strike into something of a cross in the 31st minute, which
Leong Wan Kang busted a gut to retrieve. Some false starts later,
Rinor Isufi decided to take matters into his own hands, and all but stripped Leong of the ball before angling it past Martin Park.
The situation was dire enough that Leong could hardly complain, and Grilled continued trying to stretch their lead with as much drive as they had before, which was to say, not much.
Low Aik Jia came closest to succeeding, with his opportunistic lob mid-dribble in the 39th, but that fine bit of invention scraped the crossbar and went over.
Assistant coach Luis Alcántara looked almost disinterested at the grind that was playing out, and in truth Grilled were not in a bad position, with the hosts seldom breaking into their final third. Trainee forward Hector Hsueh was eager but raw, and the pair of
Gene Filippone and
Rashid bin Ahmad were underworked through the first half.
Alcántara's first tactical change was to put
Pompeo Bellamoli on for the hard-running but uninspired
Leong Wan Kang, which nearly brought immediate dividends when Bellamoli forced Park into a hair-trigger save with a flick out of nowhere.
Rashid bin Ahmad then joined in on the action, but posted his attempt too high.
This was more or less to plan for the home team, and they began testing the Birds on the counter. Rightback Bobby Fox surprised
Remco van der Ban with a sudden pull forward in the 79th minute, after not ever venturing anything like that, but this didn't fool the seasoned Filippone.
Just when Grilled thought that the danger had passed, disaster happened.
Zhao Jing Wei didn't appreciate Poh Meng Wei bumping into him a little too hard in the lead-up, and some heated words were exchanged. This concluded with Poh appearing to spit in Zhao's direction, to which Zhao reacted with a surreptitious stomp the next time they met.
Swiss referee Pierre Paillard was having none of that, and went for the straight red despite Zhao's teammates pleading his case. It would only get worse, as
Hilal Bakhtiar apparently misheard the referee's whistle to restart, and let the cunning Konrad Strahler in for a simple finish.
There were more disputes from the Grilled end for that too, but at least one man decided to reply in kind; with the home fans delirious at seemingly having forced extra time at least,
Ang Leong Kum embarked upon a heroic charge straight through on the restart, and squeezed it in against all odds.
Unfortunately for Ang, the goal included a stray shoulder to the forehead from nightmare captain Jorge Regidor Reyes into the bargain, and he had to stagger behind to receive treatment. Alcántara soon pulled his gamewinner off, figuring that
Nicola Vandeneynde could hold the fort for a few minutes.
Low Aik Jia would try to make it safe, but would be denied by Park, and Grilled were wary enough to use their third and final sub to eat into the remaining time, while giving
Kohei Okuya his senior debut appearance in passing.
