King Of Internationals
Grilled skipper
Moey Xin Seng could not help but praise ThreeB for their initial strength. "They played it wonderfully, for the first twenty minutes or so. To be frank, I was beginning to be a little worried, when they converted that penalty."
That said, the final winning margin was more or less what had been expected, and Moey's attention had long turned to KingofNoobs United. "I'm not saying we can or can't win it, not after one game. I'm just going into every S-League match like it's my last."
Over in the downtown region, the Farmer Bunnies managed without
Mushtag Al-Nameeri and
Tham Leng Teck, as they eliminated the Sunny Beach Boys by three goals to one.
Lau Chang Wan got them going with a fifth minute counter, while Tham's replacement at rightback,
Sofian Azfar, picked up his scoring slack as well in the 33rd minute.
Beach Boy veteran Chen Fu Lai notched a memorable goal past
Vivian Grubenmann, but
Namdar Zarar made sure with a clever far-side run, in the middle of the second half. That was the signal for
Richard Agyei to be rested, with
Sunil Patel thus making his competitive debut.
And in the Barbados, BSC Newcastle United International would fall to Grilled International in a real thriller. St. James Park was near-packed for the event, through the home fans would have little to cheer about for the first fifty minutes, as
Osertz Indurain and then
Tibor Atzenhain put Grilled International two goals up on the back of some especially creative work through the middle.
Though Gandolfo Saponetta reduced in the 55th as Grilled International sought to cement the result, the critical equalizer wouldn't arrive, at least not until Joe Ferguson headed a corner past
Querubim Santos Couto in the very last minute. The hosts' relief would last mere seconds, as it transpired, with
Wang Hanxuan knocking the final nail in the coffin, in the one minute added on.
Wang didn't pretend to know what might have happened, had it dragged to extra time. "It was a really, really draining encounter." he said. "One that I'm just glad is over and done with."
