Bad Guys Win Again
Villains Catch Birds Out
Villains F.C. made it a cup three-peat against the Birds, as they again bundled Grilled out of the main competition, as they had in the previous round last season. On their own impressive winning streak of sixteen in a row in all competitions, the Villains' momentum gave them a life of their own, and they would manage what so many other clubs had tried and failed without apparently deviating overly from their usual style.
Indeed, it was basically the same 3-5-2 that had edged Grilled so recently, if with a few changes in personnel and positioning; former Czech goalkeeper Milan Čutka had gone on to former Dutch Spek-en-Bonenschaal winners Red Bull Triars for S$16.5 million, for which they acquired Croatian replacement Zvjezdan Ražić from Brazil's Atletico Maringá. Gabriel Gallardo yielded to the on-form Hagen Hegger at leftback, with local winger Wong Jian Yew filling in for the injured Andrej Khramenkou on the same flank. Otherwise, this was essentially the same side that had upset Grilled not all that long ago.
And would do the same, only with even more emphasis this time.
The Birds were definitely out to prevent a repeat at Benfleet Branch 2's Tarpots Rec., but not through any particular plan, and through their own major strengths as always. They retained the advantage in midfield, after all, and when you had fellows like
Moey Xin Seng,
Salah Kamel and
Heng Dong Chu on the bench due to honestly being outperformed, one had to suppose that whoever made it onto the pitch had to be one hell of a player. Well, this largely held true - but not in defence today.
Grilled's downfall would arise from that area, as the Villains became one of the few teams able to change the narrative to where the Birds were weakest. This was, it went without saying, no easy task in itself, and would take either guts and luck on their part, or mistakes from Grilled's defenders... and today, both were in abundance. How else would one describe Pierre Laurent's almost-perfunctory drive at Salmiņš in the sixth minute, which would be met by an unnecessary late attempted block from
Sølve Lunde, the big deflection of which took it past the goalie?
Well, this was not entirely out of character for the Birds, but more was to come as the Villains plied the fine balancing act between keeping Grilled out and creating their own chances, very well indeed. It was not as if
Chan Ze Han were inactive, but he had a Yujiro Murai playing one of the games of his life, being all but obsessed with him. Lightning then struck twice as Norwegian midfielder Jens Sletner nudged through in the 17th minute, and had his grounder skip oddly on the last bounce, as Salmiņš made to collect.
Villains were hardly about to take their two-goal lead for granted, and head coach Lukas Löver would gesture for his players to redouble their defensive efforts, that had been working out so well for them. On the other hand, the Birds were doing everything right, but Ražić - as with most of his teammates - was having a blinder. After a promising run by Kalki had been cut short in the 24th minute, the Villains were able to counter from an ambitious cross-field switch of play, and there was for once no element of fortune in Laurent's full-throttle dribble that caught
Kalle ter Berg out for pace, and subsequent perfect finish.
Frustration would mount amongst the Birds as they found themselves with an almost insurmountable mountain to climb, despite their seemingly setting the flow of the game, and
Bilal Mohammad Harun would flirt with a card - or worse - as he clattered Bogdan Siczek. In the end, Bilal would escape scot-free, as the Villains lost their captain to a mild thigh contusion, which had Lee Hao Su replace him in attack.
That was not enough to change Grilled's fate around, though, as Villains were rightly incensed by the injustice done unto them. They would about barely survive
Vikram Mudaliar's strike immediately following that controversy, after which they made for a unified front against Grilled's depredations.
Hilal Bakhtiar had
Moey Xin Seng warming up on the sidelines, as he debated internally on whether to send the veteran on to marshall Grilled from midfield, but eventually decided against it.
Well, the Birds might have gotten one or two back by half-time on another day, but they didn't, and it would only get worse. Nothing they were doing was coming off, but the opposite could be said for their opponents, as seen when Lunde slipped against Timotej Klarič's little stepover in the 64th minute, which the Slovenian forward had evidently not been expecting; Klaric would transition from surprise to glee in an instant, as he saw his instinctive finish rattle in at the top right corner.
The Grilled fans were certainly not expecting their team to be four down at any point, and they would be sullen for the first time in a long while, as they watched Bakhtiar try to magic the team out of the hole that they had collectively dug. Towards this, he would replace Kalki with
Salah Kamel on the left, which did lead directly into a Grilled goal at last.
Bernie Egan's shot would be awkwardly cleared only to a waiting
Bilal Mohammad Harun, who stabbed it past Ražić to resounding boos from the Villains supporters.
In any case, they would have the last laugh, as Lunde's own effort at making up for his errors would be denied by an excellent reaction stop from Ražić. It could actually have been five, as Lee Hao Su was cleared for a shot from under ten yards as Grilled bustled about trying vainly against all rational expectations, only to strike the crossbar.
