Closing In
Grilled Man of the Match
Yuta Nakakita lauded a solid performance from the team. "Some might have said that it would be a walkover, but trust me, we took Songo very seriously indeed. They were definitely good enough to score had we made any big mistakes, which we thankfully did not."
It was tough to hide the Birds' striking woes, despite the scoreline, with a number of supporters questioning
Kalki Parvathaneni's mental state. "It's beyond bad luck now." storekeeper Loh Wan Chai opined. "I can't see why
Chan Ze Han won't step right into the first team - he surely can't do any worse!"
The Birds would close in on frontrunners Changi Genius and -Blitz-, with the duo battling to a two-all draw at ReducedToRubble, their first of the season. Changi will probably be the more pleased after they schemed their way from two goals down, but they would in turn lose Ivo Selestrin and Wee Kim Yun to injury, hardly ideal with newbies are newbies knocking on the door next.
newbies for their part ripped Black Banana FC a new one, with Li Rong Lee and Yue Haoping on braces, after Manuel Chacón made a fight of it early on. ArSenal U21 made it an undefeated sweep for the away teams, as they slammed a dispirited Really McCoys 0-4.
Farmer Bunnies were knocked off their perch in III.11, as they suffered a second draw in succession, this time to Soon Soon. It wasn't difficult to guess where the Buns' priorities lay, as they pressed
Vishnu Tallapaka and
Brendan Leung into unfamiliar winger spots. Despite that, they ran up a 2-0 lead through
Abderahim Bentellis and
Lau Chang Wan, but Edgar Xochotl replied from the spot after a hotly-debated call, and Leonardo Bellonzi levelled it up in the 73rd minute.
"It's unfortunate that we let Soon Soon back in," defender
Wong Ting Yew said. "but we can live with it. All our attention is on Scallop Soccer Team now, and going by their defeat to Chelsea Pioneer today, they are definitely hardly invincible."
Grilled International's tendency to fall off after a quick start repeated, though they were always going to be underdogs against Belgian table-toppers Real Hazard.
Soo Kiong Yau claimed a consolation from a penalty, but Hazard would hit them fourfold.
A painful month is on the cards, with a doubleheader against FC. Schalke 1904 and then a rematch against Real Hazard to come, but
Tajit bin Mohd did not waver from his target of a third-place finish. "Top two is a bridge too far, but after getting through June, it will be smooth sailing in comparison."
