Hats On All Around
Islom Davlatov, who made a beeline to swap jerseys with Bhagyaraj Nagireddy after the final whistle, felt that he had made all the difference in the friendly contest. "I've seen it sometimes from Tian in training, but today, I experienced what playing with your heads really means, on the receiving end."
French trainee
Christopher Mauget, who was self-admittedly forgettable at the prong of a three-man attack, would instead pick Ibex skipper Vishnu Goli as their most influential player. "It's easy to miss, but he made getting a clear sight of goal fiendishly difficult. Still, I thought that we had this, when Prokop scored."
Farmer Bunnies and Grilled International too had hat-tricks scored against them, with Vietnamese Division Two side The straths' Stéphane Chapet doing the deed at Carrot Field.
Akıner Sayın played a blinder in the first half to keep straths at bay, and the Buns appeared to have managed a classic smash and grab, when
Wong Ting Yew sliced them into a 47th minute lead.
There was no restraining midfield dynamo Chapet after that, though, with replacement keeper
Rashid Nasir al Din hardly a shade on Sayın. Although
Solihin Noor Yadah reduced to 2-3 with ten minutes to go, Chapet would then finish off a penalty for his third goal.
Daniel Nguyen had been sent off for his second yellow moments before those two strikes, having lost his temper after barely making an impression against the straths backline as lone striker.
Nguyen would go public with his unhappiness afterwards. "I'm sorry if I let down my teammates, but I also think that I was played wrongly. I'm not a target man, and given today's formation, I didn't stand a chance."
Junaidi bin Hj Mohammad would go one better for Crown Clown against Grilled International, as the former Brunei cupwinners and two-time Emerald Challenger Cup holders smashed them 5-1.
Soo Kiong Yau actually gave International a dream start, scrapping home from a botched free-kick deployment, and despite key forward
Abdul Hamid bin Hj Ali Timbang having to be withdrawn in the 15th minute as a precaution, International held grimly to their lead, till the 82nd minute.
Junaidi would then drill the equaliser in coming from the right, and extra time seemed a given. This would not be, though, and the spectators would be treated to four goals in the last four minutes of the game, with a totally-drained International XI giving up the ghost early.
Acting captain
Mohd Kamarul bin Hj Safari could only shake his head at the turnaround. "We were so, so close."
