Shev Shave
Bukhari Again
Close to half of SHEV UNITED's Shevchenko Stadium was filled with Grilled supporters, as derbies often entail. SHEV qualified for the sixth round by virtue of knocking out Division Two side chupala by a narrow margin, and went all out against the Birds with an adventurous 3-4-3 formation.
20 year-old Ukranian forward Andriy Shevchenko was left out altogether, as SHEV's manager chose 1.87m tall Spaniard Cornelio Moreno as the third striker and Helmut Schütz for the bench. All that firepower was for nought, sadly, as 17 ear-old
Bukhari Abd Hamid smartly abandoned his flank to lend strength to a push up the opposite wing. van Liere did most of the work, but Bukhari grabbed his second goal in two Cup games with a sharp finish.
SHEV UNITED were unable to play their normal swashbuckling game, as it would be courting suicide with Grilled's quality upfront. Their weakness in defence turned out to be unmendable, as local lad Leow Ho Tong and Argentinean wingback Agustín Nieves were too inexperienced, and their partner Alojzije Paviæ was already the wrong side of thirty.
Against this uninspiring defence, Wai-Kin had a field day. Martinsson earned an assist with a timely poke straight down the middle for Wai-Kin to chase, and the veteran calmly rode Ho Tong's desperate tackle and lobbed Yu-Chung perfectly to put Grilled two up.
SHEV were left with a mountain to climb as Abd Hamid got past his man on the right with little more than sheer exuberance, going on to lose the ball while trying to shimmy past the second defender. Wai-Kin had expected that and lapped up the free ball, whamming it so hard that although Yu-Cheng got a leg to the grounder, it hardly changed course and rippled the back of the net.
Grilled alternated between lazing in possession and attacking frantically, with a relaxed van Liere enough to strike terror each time he had the ball at his feet. Siu-Yue got involved in a slanging match between Han Kok and Falcón, and gave the Mexican a parting shove that was spotted by the referee. A truly stupid yellow card to give away.
Ironically the quickly-taken free-kick led to the fourth goal, as it came off Kek-Tjiang, who was standing in front of the ball. van Liere was away and gone immediately, and SHEV's captain Alojzije Paviæ could do nothing but grab a fistful of the Flying Dutchman's jersey to prevent a certain goal.
It didn't make a difference, as Paviæ escaped even a caution but Sid converted the penalty handily. He never slackened his pace, however, and set a good example to his teammates with his incessant activity. He could even have scored a consolation for his troubles, but his classy twenty metre lob flew marginally over Grilled's goal.
The Cup tie ended on a slightly sour note with Agustín Nieves picking up a hard knock to his leg as Han Kok planted his studs in. The linesman ignored the incident, sparking loud booing from the indigant home fans. Nieves' 32 year-old compatriot Leonardo Huel substituted in for him, but the game was by then far gone.
