Stick Shift
Tanguturi Into Self
The past owners of Brutus Dominion Spartacus Maxima Futbol Club, Le Faux Pas W Cup and Sentosa Party Girls FC would make a fourth foray into Singaporean soccer with the founding of Upright Stick of Justice five seasons ago, in which time they have already garnered two Division Four titles. Having just endured a tough season in III.12, the Sticks remained something of a work in progress, and the Birds would sweep them 8-0 in this end-season friendly.
A modest audience of some 2400 had turned up in Woodlands for this, with there being no tactical tricks from the hosts' Italian head coach Pier Nicola Zipoli, as they lined up in a 5-4-1. Noubaryan on the other hand had his Birds try out a 3-5-2 again, with
Yuta Nakakita generously given the minutes he needed to play his way back into form. Neither
Kohei Okuya nor
Jérémy Tarin could be said to be truly first-class support, but as it turned out, neither would be called on defensively all that much.
All the important action would be at the other end instead, as Czech forward
Prokop Mottl took his responsibilities extremely seriously indeed. Though faultless in workrate, Mottl hadn't exactly been banging them in, in recent games; it thus came as some relief when he got onto the end of
Vikram Mudaliar's corner-kick putback header, to open the scoring in the seventh minute.
Mottl would then mishit another fine cross from
Islom Davlatov in the 19th, but not to worry,
Bernie Egan would put it straight into the net with an instinctive overhead take. Custodian Cory Tong couldn't even get angry at that, but he would be furious at his defence several minutes later, when they provided him essentially no protection against
Moey Xin Seng's rampaging strike.
The Sticks held firm for some ten minutes after that third goal, but their stiffness would again gradually fade against the Birds' vigorous thrusts from all directions. Egan certainly wasn't shy about expressing himself, and was arguably cheated of another, as his drive took a deflection into the side netting in the 35th. It was left to
Chan Ze Han to round off the scoring for the half, with a rather vanilla effort coming down the centre.
Chu Xin Lee replaced Davlatov for the next half, which saw German trainee Jörn Buschke take charge at the back. While clearly still raw, Buschke had basic tenacity in spades, which left
Kalki Parvathaneni disappointed all too often. It took nearly twenty minutes for Grilled to return to scoring ways, and it was through Mottl again when it came, as Kalki finally found the space to whip a cross inside.
That volley would be followed by another prolonged lull, during which
Chan Ze Han - off-colour by his own high standards - was substituted by
José Luiz Velho in midfield. Velho's first act upon coming on was to get himself pushed over by Teh Chee Ze for a free-kick in an advanced position, and while that would be half-cleared, Grilled's next attacking wave saw
Kalki Parvathaneni nip in for the sixth.
There would be an own goal next, as Sticks winger Isaac Tanguturi accidentally laid it across his own goalline, in trying to block a shot from a ranging
Vikram Mudaliar. The finale saw
Chu Xin Lee taking potshots at Cory Tong from afar, and one of those would become an assist for
Bernie Egan, after curling back into the penalty area.
