Ten In Jest
Chan Then Egan
The eleventh competitive meeting between the Birds and Joker 9 would rack up the second-highest goal total of them all, as Grilled ran away 7-3 winners at Aljunied Bridge. The large final winning margin aside, the hosts certainly kept things interesting for the first hour, and there were even moments where it seemed as if they could turn it all around.
Last season had seen the Jokers triumph 6-2 on this ground, and there were only three changes from their starting XI that day - Dutch winger Dimitri Bodde had just left for Poland's Twierdza Łódź in a late flurry of transfer activity, along with veteran Luo Haixiang to Ireland's Liam Mellows. Former Farmer Bunnies youth icon Ho Ah Kian had left a couple of months ago, with local junior Tay Woon Chun stepping in. Jae-Jun Kim definitely wasn't pinching pennies, though, as he laid out over S$20 million apiece, for fresh wing terrors in Vyacheslav Gorpinchenko and Máté Veseta, both of whom would make their league debuts.
Now, all these three had already opened their goal account for the season in the Singapore Cup against Westside Wankers, Tay moreover plundering a hat-trick, but Grilled were an entirely different proposition. Pundits had noted the similarities in the philosophies of both teams, with Kim and Noubaryan both favouring a pacy, hard-running offense buttressed with significant aerial potential. It would then come down to the application, and in this, Grilled would exhibit the upper hand.
It wasn't as if the Birds were anywhere near flawless, with their defence looking somewhat shaky, what with
Gilbert Webb in particular not having shaken off the rust. Grilled were rather more disciplined in their distribution when they had the ball, and this would be the main distinction between the sides. Quite a number of potential attacks would be recycled, and others failed, but
Heng Dong Chu's gambit to get past Wu Seng An worked out, in the 21st minute. Having shaken off much initial criticism to excel towards the end of last season, Heng would further silence his detractors with a fantastic drive, slammed in off the left goalpost.
Chan Ze Han smelt blood as the Jokers reeled from the setback, and the captain for the day was never one to allow his foes time to recover. It would be 2-0 on Grilled's very next possession, as Chan pushed inside the box from midfield to score, and he upped it to three by the 30th minute from a delightful hanging volley. The travelling fans were on their feet at that, as they saluted the incomparable 25 year-old.
Things could turn on a dime between two such attack-first sides, however, and Joker 9 would stage a turnaround from nowhere. The forty-odd million that they had splurged on the wings couldn't have been all for show, and Russian left winger Gorpinchenko flaunted exceptional acceleration in burning past
Cyril Künzler, despite the Pole also being known for his speed. The cross was good too, if a little long, but nothing that Tobias Wurzinger couldn't handle;
Massoud Dob could never have gotten to his dipping header.
Joker 9 would almost immediately be back within a single goal following that, as Grilled suggested themselves pretty poor on defence, once more. No-one appeared to want to check Hatem Saâda as the Tunisian midfielder cautiously walked the ball upfield, and a sudden pass saw Desmond Anderson unleashed at the head of a three-on-two scenario. Anderson would eventually prod it across for Tay Woon Chun, who duly finished like a seasoned pro.
Hovaness Noubaryan's adjustment for the second half was to take
Moey Xin Seng off for
Neeraj Muthyala, even though Moey was far from the Birds' worse performers. It was indeed difficult to recognize the logic behind that change, but then, it wasn't as if there was that much wrong with Grilled's setup. In any case, their biggest problems were out wide, as Máté Veseta blew past Heng several minutes after the restart. Dob earned his keep then, with a superb reaction dive to smother the shot.
The match gave every impression of possibly swinging either way, with precious few indications of which way it would be. Grilled were trying to stay in possession as far as they could, and eventually an opportunity presented itself on the right side, with an overconfident Gorpinchenko out to do too much by himself.
Cyril Künzler scrambled the loose ball onwards for
Chu Xin Lee, who in turn swayed Chow Puay Hui aside to put it in for 4-2.
A couple of corner-kick conversions followed, and the Birds went first through
Neeraj Muthyala's powerful header. Gert-Jan van Boshuizen could only awkwardly parry it back in front of the goalmouth, and
Bernie Egan required no second telling. Joker 9 lost none of their fire as they forced a corner of their own straight from kick-off, however, and in their case it was Chow who knocked it down for Radomir Hołówka's unstoppable blast into the roof of the net.
The crowd was really getting into it again, but sadly for most of them, the Grilled squad's greater familiarity with each other would prove the decisive factor.
Bernie Egan knew exactly where
Vikram Mudaliar would be, when he received a pass with his back to goal, and the extra seconds this bought the Indian forward would be enough for him to go clear for Grilled's sixth goal.
Given that it hadn't been Webb's best day thus far, he could be forgiven for looking a little relieved when his number was called in the 70th minute, with
Yuta Nakakita in to see the match out. Grilled's lead was never in danger after that as the hosts faded, and
Bernie Egan would profit further by chipping Gert-Jan van Boshuizen for a seventh, in time added on.
