Rangers In The Ryd
Jeftić Ringer
There were few hiccups in the second round of the Singapore Cup, as the Birds pressed on with a 6-0 win over Pasir Ris club (The New) Ryd Rangers FC. Formerly known as chiraag pool, Rangers had undergone a change in leadership just over a season ago, following two abortive previous attempts from their management. Division Four proved too much for Toh Kong Leong's doughty bunch, a 3-0 win over a severly understrength Talpons side notwithstanding, and having to start with ten men after an administrative error didn't help the hosts.
Their supporters weren't about to pass up the chance to watch their guys take on the Birds, whatever else might be said, and their spanking-new Rydskogen IP would be packed to its capacity of twelve thousand; It was easy to see why 18 year-old Polish trainee Marek Dworok was a favourite already, with his snazzy dribbling throwing
Yuta Nakakita off on his first run at the Grilled veteran. Sadly, the rest of the team wasn't anywhere near as bold, and
Gilbert Webb would open in the tenth minute after a long period of sustained pressure from
Cyril Künzler down the right.
There would be a brief buzz of excitement as Rangers sought an instant pullback, and their best hope likely came as Vietnamese forward Đỗ Hùng Dũng went down in trying to get past Yuta in the box, with Yuta seemingly having left a leg out. Although it looked cut and dried at first sight, however, replays would show minimal contact, if any, and referee Camilo Rodriguez would up giving a still-protesting Đỗ a stern talking-to instead.
That little bit of deception done with, Grilled would get hauled up for good five minutes later, after
Neeraj Muthyala stepped in with bad intent on opposing midfielder Zuhair Farizul Mohd Ismail. Frankly, there was no need for such with the Birds never looking in real trouble aside from the Đỗ incident, and Künzler would soon make himself very useful down his flank.
Chan Ze Hand and
Kalki Parvathaneni upped the score to 3-0 within a minute of each other, as the Rangers' concentration finally slumped.
The half-time break didn't exactly give Toh much to work on, and Kalki would get his second goal, as Grilled tightened the vise straight from kick-off. It had been a very difficult day indeed for the 19 year-old Ang Su How, and the last thing he really needed was Grilled's Number Tean bearing down on him at pace. There was simply no margin of error for a challenge here, and one could understand why And didn't even try.
Rangers' home fans weren't expecting too much, at least, and goalkeeper Soo Yeng Chao felt free to play to the crowd a little, as he picked the ball from his own net. The next time he would have to do so would be in the 57th minute, as
Chan Ze Han swooped in from the left side.
Eren Serpin would then give wingers
Heng Dong Chu and
Wu Jinglong a bit more playing time with fifteen minutes remaining, as they replaced Bilal and Kalki respectively.
Jinglong would for one immediately re-liven the game up, from his berth at right forward, and he would contribute a potent curler from just outside the penalty area, that beat Soo handily but not the woodwork. It was then left to
Mateja Jeftić to sew it up with a penalty conversion, after both Chan and Kalki politely declined the chance to finish up their hat-tricks.
