Grilled Birds 3 - 2
Haha 
Late And Longest
Mudaliar At The Last
Grilled Birds' S-League title defence - and
Hilal Bakhtiar's first league match in charge - got off to a great start, as they saw off last season's closest challengers Haha 3-2 at The Cooking Pot. Haha had long been one of the Birds' worst matchups, but a second successive victory against the Woodlands luminaries might just suggest that Grilled have found a workable approach against them.
Bakhtiar would not copy
Eren Serpin's famous 3-4-3 from last season, however, as he proved very much his own man in his team selection; team captain
Moey Xin Seng would not make the starting lineup, with
Chu Xin Lee instead a surprise inclusion at left forward. Kalki, Egan and
Kalle ter Berg were left out too, as Bakhtiar pursued width aggressively with both
Heng Dong Chu and
Wu Jinglong. That said, the caretaker head coach
had known many of these players for far longer than even Serpin had, so it could hardly be reasoned that he had no business making those calls.
Haha maintained largely the same 5-3-2 that had barely lost out on their last visit here, with the only minor tweak being Giuseppe Ghiringhelli dropping slightly further towards midfield - perhaps an admission that a draw would not be seen as an entirely unacceptable result, by the visitors. Haha had not recruited since acquiring French playmaker Fatin Belaîdi's for S$13 million towards the end of last season, as Kuwaiti head coach Salah Abd El Razzak was adamant that they had the goods to handle all in their way.
A bold assertion, but maybe not entirely without justification, given how Grilled Birds were the only club to manage to defeat them in the league in their latest campaign - and on this very ground, no less. Their only other defeats had come via a shock 0-4 collapse to St. Xavier's FC in the Singapore Cup, and another narrow loss to Moldovan double winners FC ROMA Causeni before that. They certainly were well capable of holding the Birds off for long stretches, and for all their neat passing in the opening ten minutes, Grilled found no way through.
Recognizing that they needed to venture to gain against a defence of Haha's calibre, Grilled would bring more players into the attack, leading to an overload on the left wing that saw
Gilbert Webb stroke
Heng Dong Chu's layoff unconvincingly at Giuseppe Teani. Haha's reply would be fast and furious, as former national U-20 defender Vishvesharaiyah Gudivada switched them onto offensive mode in a jiffy, and an ambitious long ball out towards Félix Valdayo would be barely reached by the Spanish forward.
Grilled were not deterred, and after some extended unsuccessful probing from
Chan Ze Han, the moment that they had been waiting for arrived. The preseason had seen many questions over whether 37 year-old
Wu Jinglong deserved a place in the squad, let alone the starting lineup, and the former Fringeheads star would answer his naysayers with a sublime run to the inside, anticipating
Bilal Mohammad Harun's forward pass perfectly. Miguel Parguiña tried to close him down, but Wu sent an inch-perfect right-footer, straight in at the top corner.
No goalkeeper was getting close to that one, but as it happened, this would be the pinnacle of Wu's day by far. A big letdown would follow three minutes later, as Chan looked for and earned a penalty, holding up the ball on the edge of the six-yard box. Wu sidefooted it a yard wide, and despite more pressure from Grilled yielding a booking for Aw Tian Jin and then another free-kick in a promising position, Wu could only send an indifferent effort over the wall, but tamely towards Teani.
Another counterattack was on, and Haha made the most of this one. Although the Grilled players were clearly cognizant of the dangers, Haha were easily a good enough team that the Birds had to take risks to threaten with any seriousness, and Haha were in turn experts at constructing breakaways while themselves shorthanded. Belaîdi held off
Teo Chuan Yong for long enough that his teammates could start some runs, and he chose Roger Viroux as his option, with the Belgian fullback on point with his finish.
That made it one-all at half-time, which probably roughly reflected the balance of the game, if slightly kindly for the visitors.
Hilal Bakhtiar was a picture of calm as he bantered with Salah Abd El Razzak walking into the tunnel, but that composure would crack a little as Haha took the lead shortly after the restart. A scorcher from
Chan Ze Han would very unfortunately rattle off the crossbar in the 52nd minute, and the ensuring counter led by Sorin-Dan Corbean down the right side saw Félix Valdayo freed to score.
This was the trajectory that Haha had been seeking all along, and they would immediately settle into an even more-defensive posture without any additional prompting. Indeed, Grilled were at a disadvantage having to really chase the match now... but perhaps not quite, from how they sliced through Haha's fortifications at times. There was precious little fear in how the Birds moved, despite their less-than-savoury circumstances, and their bulletproof confidence would be repaid with
Salah Kamel all but walking through to level up, after 61 minutes.
Wu Jinglong's early vibrancy was well and truly faded by now too, and Bakhtiar wasted no time in getting him off for
Kalle ter Berg. Five minutes later,
Gilbert Webb would be withdrawn for
Mateja Jeftić too, and these substitutions certainly injected urgency into the team. Chan, probably Grilled's busiest man for the day, swung the ball inches over in the 74th minute, and a free-kick won in the next minute had Jeftić and
Teo Chuan Yong dummy the ball - before Ter Berg put it high as well. Story of the day.
Haha were digging in seriously at this stage, and a draw was looking increasingly the most likely outcome, as they rebuffed wave after wave of Grilled attacks. Aw Tian Jin appeared to have won his team a valuable point, as the fourth official indicated an unusually-short one minute of injury time, to Bakhtiar's disbelief. Luckily, this turned out not to matter, as
Vikram Mudaliar unleashed his full pace, streaking in from the left, on what might well have been Grilled's final chance of the game. None of the Haha defenders were understandably eager to get in his way and risk a late penalty, but this was to their everlasting regret, as Mudaliar got in close enough to scuff a chip just over a despairing Teani, even while stumbling to a fall.
