Jun Long's Progress
Despite the commotion around Shan's protests at the end, there seemed few enough hard lingering feelings, with even the most fervent of bedynamic's faithful not realistically expecting them to prevail against the defending champions. The Grilled fellows were happy enough to oblige with autographs and shirts, with
Eren Serpin assured enough to be very generous with his praise.
"It's great to see such spirit from neighbourhood teams, and from what I hear, bedynamic are a nice mix of Chinese expats, local Malays, and a Eurasian lad Jordan Gilley. Can't see that in many places other than Singapore!"
Farmer Bunnies didn't have too much trouble in getting past Tanglin fourth division side tengli11 either, even if the hosts had made an impressive run to the sixth round of the Singapore Emerald Challenger Cup in their first full season.
Mushtag Al-Nameeri scored a double, with
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany,
Kwek Yun Jie,
Tham Leng Teck and
Vishnu Tallapaka scoring in the 6-1 victory. Defender Yasir Firdaus would manage a consolation in the 40th minute, from a well-taken corner.
Injury trouble didn't take long to haunt the Buns, with
Vivian Grubenmann having to undergo extended treatment after getting rushed by Phua Wei Ze in the 23rd minute, and
Wong Ting Yew out for two to three weeks with a busted collarbone, in a bone-shaking one-on-one duel against opposing captain Soh Jia Boon; that Tallapaka converted the resulting free-kick was a small silver lining.
As for Grilled International, their woeful form from the past season seemed to have clung to them, as they were outpossessed by Georgian H.I. V.135 club Tbilisi Pheasants. Shota Likokeli's opener in the 64th minute appeared to be the death of International, given that they had created nothing but a quarter-chance for
Wang Hanxuan, for the preceding hour or so.
At least one of their number had not given up, fortunately, with 19 year-old
Chua Jun Long showing his fire in charging a free-kick down - for which he got booked - before equalizing in the 79th minute. He nearly won it in the 83rd minute too, were it not for Stefan Orzelek being quick off his line. No problems, as he picked up where he left off with a thundering volley in extra time, soon after Likokeli had missed connecting with a volley at the other end.
Vadym Gorozhankin would have to make a huge save against Likokeli after that, but in team captain
Safari bin Hj Jali's mind, there was no doubt as to who International owed the win to. "Chua saved our bacon today, we all saw what he did." Safari said. "He might have done better positionally, but in terms of drive, we were carried by him!"
