Tecos Trounced
All The Goals
Tecos Foreign Legion might have just notched their first S-League win ever, a 5-2 home taming of UDNTK FC, but it was normal service resumed over at The Cooking Pot. A complete collapse in the Sapphire Challenger Cup finals against BuddyBoys had deeply punctured their psyche, so it seemed, that this was not a frame of mind that they could get away with, against a Grilled Birds team chasing the title. Grilled went five up by half-time, at which the remaining interest was merely on whether BuddyBoys would be bettered here.
The Birds had of course gone 6-1 to the good against Tecos in the reverse fixture three weeks back, and there would be some extra reshuffling -
Salah Kamel and
Teo Chuan Yong would be out,
Bernie Egan moved into attack, and
Moey Xin Seng dropped to midfield.
Chu Xin Lee would return at right wing, and
Gilbert Webb left out after one high-profile mistake too many. For Tecos Foreign Legion, their clearest concession was a reconfiguration to a 4-4-2, partly forced by Chris Kuang's broken arm against Robbie Football Club. This allowed Angolan defender Vítor Aires to come in, alongside Gábor Balog.
Or that was the idea for Tecos anyway, but to be frank expectations weren't particularly high for them here, all the more given their midweek disaster. The commentators were in agreement that the visitors' best chances were if they managed to frustrate the Birds into mistakes by holding them off for as long as possible, but any such plans were sent tumbling seven minutes in. Neither of Tecos' centrebacks could reach an obvious-seeming pass fanned lazily out for
Kalki Parvathaneni, and they would pay the price as the Number Ten brought it along for the ride without missing a beat, before driving it low past Trifonas Akefalos.
The Greek goalkeeper would earn his keep on the Birds' next attempt barely two minutes later, which saw
Chan Ze Han pointedly target the right top corner with a curler. Akefalos got a necessary palm to that, and for the next twenty minutes, Tecos Foreign Legion were all that their fans could have hoped for, as they tied Grilled up while making big inroads in bringing Andreas Bülles into play. Unfortunately for them, this would be a mere aberration, and Kalki would shatter the illusion in scorching Chee Long Jie for pace and feeding
Vikram Mudaliar in the 30th minute.
What remained of the half was not going to be enjoyable for the Legion in the least, as the worst parts of their game from the cup final returned to haunt them. There was scant trace of the grim resolve that had permeated their game before, as
Bernie Egan was allowed to simply waltz behind their backline for Grilled's third in the 34th minute. A vicious if probably accidental elbow to Moey's chest by Mario Lipari barely slowed Grilled down, and
Chu Xin Lee would have it at 5-0, as he shot without restraint - and quite rightly, in the circumstances.
If that wasn't enough for
Eren Serpin to risk another
Heng Dong Chu appearance, nothing would be, and the struggling wing star would come on for Kalki, for the second forty-five minutes. Heng's dip in confidence was impossible to miss, however, and he would spend his time being more careful to avoid mistakes, than in taking gambles on breaking the Tecos defence. Then again, this might just have been what the coaches had ordered.
In any case, the rest of Grilled's team were purring along just dandy, and
Bernie Egan would record his second goal of the day from a header, as
Chu Xin Lee winged an outswinger over from the right flank. Chu had certainly been unleashed in a good way, in stark constrast to the reserved Heng, as he made it his business to make Ilham Abd Rahim Kamarul Azhar's life as difficult as possible. The 25 year-old former national youth winger had to be superior to Chu on paper, but the exigencies of the game left Ilham's best qualities under wrap.
These were probably not defensive, and Chu would maneuver his way past Ilham with gusto in the 57th minute, though he ended up getting hemmed in at the corner by Mário Pedro Machado. Chu would settle for the corner, quite correctly as it transpired;
Mateja Jeftić strode up to take it after some consultation with
Bhavya Panigrahi, and
Kalle ter Berg rose above it all to head home his ninth of the season.
Tecos regathered their composure about this point, and would very much be a changed team for the final third of the match, not that it helped them much. Responding to Asanka Rajasekara's directions from the touchline, the Legion went on the warpath, and proved rather more effective when operating proactively - which raised questions as to why they hadn't tried it much earlier. Bülles would be freed on the right side in what was perhaps Tecos' best counter of the game in the 66th minute, but Jeftić showed himself up to the challenge.
The Birds' game would nonetheless be dampened as it was
Eren Serpin's turn to remind his players to try and avoid injury, and to this end there would be two substitutions made towards the end, first with Panigrahi off and
Gilbert Webb on. Five minutes later,
Kalle ter Berg made way for
Salah Kamel.
Chu Xin Lee made his bid for a first hat-trick in three seasons with a wild strike in injury time, which scraped the top of the crossbar.