Once Again
Title Two
Downplayed as a cup team for most of their history, Grilled Birds might have finally shaken off that reputation for good, as they captured their second S-League trophy with a game to spare. HighVolliard Park had not been the easiest of grounds to earn a result, but both Haha and Sarcastic Fringeheads had managed it this season, and the Birds would be no exceptions in grinding their way to a deserved victory.
The calculus had been clear before the day started - Grilled only had to better Sarcastic Fringeheads' result to clinch the crown, and with the Fringeheads hosting Haha, there looked every chance of that happening. There had been some speculation over whether the Birds would retain the 3-4-3 that had served them so splendidly against Haha, but it was instead a return to the mundane - if skewed heavily towards offence, as both
Heng Dong Chu and
Wu Jinglong started as out-and-out wingers.
Moey Xin Seng would lead the starters out as captain, and shoulder the responsibility for goals together with
Chan Ze Han and
Vikram Mudaliar.
Ramseille Volliard FC's home record had stood in stark contrast to their relatively terrible away one, however, and they had always been at least competitive in their games - possible exception perhaps their 0-2 defeat to Haha, which came after an early penalty converted by Aw Tian Jin. Yeoh Wei Puay had not meddled with his best starting lineup for some weeks, and it would indeed again be Hugo Lamm operating in a 5-4-1. This had given Grilled enough trouble at The Cooking Pot, however, to the extent that they had to wait for
Kalle ter Berg to win it, with barely seven minutes left.
Eren Serpin had drummed in his intention not to leave it that late in his comments throughout the week, the openness of which was excused as being self-evident. In any case, there would be an implicit accord between the teams here, with the Birds allowed to run the ball, and the hosts clearly watching for Lamm up front. Ramseille's tradeoff would of course be requiring Giancarlo Buffon to keep them alive, and the Italian goalkeeper would have to be at his best to tip
Chu Xin Lee's twelfth minute attempt over.
Heng Dong Chu, marking his century overall for the club, would tie Sergio Sonino up on the left, and with
Wu Jinglong doing the same on the other flank, Grilled had a very effective full press going on. Dutch centreback
Mateja Jeftić would be the telling factor in this first half with his dead ball skills, though, beginning with a setup in the 20th minute. Being just over twenty yards out, it was well within Jeftić's ideal range, but he opted to loft it at the back post instead - Moey was there to apply the header under duress, and it fell to
Bilal Mohammad Harun to ram it straight to the back of the net.
This was what the Grilled supporters were waiting for, as the visiting section erupted into a sea of whirling green-and-gold scarves; the Birds were well on the warpath now, and Ramseille's passive approach would look distinctly ill-suited to containing them. Sweeper Elías Moreno would be made to scurry into tricky challenges more than once, and his luck would run out against
Chan Ze Han's silky movements in the 25th minute. That was a clear penalty, and while
Mateja Jeftić flirted with disaster with his perhaps-overconfident delivery down the middle, Buffon had moved just enough to let it through.
That was about it at HighVolliard Park for the first half, but there would be more good news to come from Sarcastic Fringehead Arena - Haha were attacking incessantly towards their own slim ambitions, and a raid by Giuseppe Ghiringhelli would be polished off by Juan Martín Barboza, swinging in from the right. This meant that as things stood, the Birds could afford to let one in, and Fringeheads would still have to score twice to stay in contention, something that they had not looked close to doing.
It was all in Grilled's court now, and
Eren Serpin would approach the second half by swapping
Wu Jinglong out for
Kalki Parvathaneni, with a view towards securing midfield yet more firmly than they had. Despite these precautions, Ramseille would come good on a long ball out of defence to Hugo Lamm, who beat Jeftić on the turn to reduce. The rebound was immediate, that said, as
Vikram Mudaliar snatched at Heng's low cross from the left, and sent it careening past the goalie for 3-1.
Things weren't going at all well for Fringeheads either, as the defending league champions fell further behind to Haha, with Ghiringhelli pouncing on the slightest of errors by Bogdan Bărbulescu. The Grilled fans gave themselves over to a celebratory mood at that, but the hosts would keep it interesting, if barely, as they countered powerfully down the right wing. Heng proved rather less imposing going backwards than forward, and Sonino whipped it across for Murathan Esinay to stick past
Jānis Salmiņš.
That couldn't hide that Grilled were about twenty-odd minutes from claiming the national title, and judging from how Fringeheads were doing, it was evident that if the Birds were to crash, they would have to do it to themselves. This was what Serpin was at pains to avoid, as he planned his double substitution with ten minutes to go:
Gilbert Webb's fresh legs for a slighly-slowing
Mateja Jeftić, and
Teo Chuan Yong to reap the rewards of diligence in training, as he took over from a yet-sprightly-but-understanding Bilal.
The stewards were standing prepared to repel a pitch invasion as the match neared its end, and it was only thanks to the intervention of the entire Grilled bench, that their supporters were persuaded to not imperil the conclusion of the match, when
Kalki Parvathaneni blazed inside to score in the very last minute.
