Good Sports All Round
Hilal Bakhtiar's biggest concern would be about
Salah Kamel's late left thigh flare-up, as he bemoaned neither himself nor the midfielder noticing it beforehand. "Salah said afterwards that it had been bothering him a little, but he thought he could play it off." the head coach revealed. "The medical team will be running some tests, but it's probably safe to say that he won't be risked on Sunday."
For Farmer Bunnies, their first league win of the season would be followed by a 6-0 wipeout of Honduras III.10 club Sporting Cristal Honduras, that had both
Sunil Patel and
Nurlan Ablaev reap braces. Unlike the Birds, it would be the Buns who would dish out the hurt, with Jhonatan Dávila and then Ernesto Molina having to go off for a dislocated shoulder and a concussion respectively.
Acting skipper
Vishnu Tallapaka, who scored the final goal from a free-kick, apologized to the visitors for the injuries. "I didn't think we went particularly rough, but it's still never good to see players having to be stretchered off."
The Bunnies would have more reason to celebrate as 21 year-old former academy star Phua Keong Kim finally moved from Ledrense - coincidentally to another Honduras third division side Matapenas - for a shade over S$10 million, of which Farmer took a 2% cut. This transfer was part of head coach Ján Grhoľ's big shake-up, with a number of regulars leaving, and Italian playmaker Gaetano Giardulli just recruited. Phua has expressed his hope to work towards making the national squad after his seventeen caps at youth level.
And over in Brunei, Armenian Division Three leaders ARLS Erevan would be schooled by German forward
Tibor Atzenhain, who bagged a hat-trick and made a couple of assists in a free-scoring 8-1 demonstration, before sitting out the final few minutes on the sidelines holding his left knee.
Chua Jun Long would eventually replace him in time added on, right on time for
Safari bin Hj Jali to sneak in from the left.
Well, it will reportedly be about a fortnight out for Atzenhain, who had been looking forward to fighting his way back into the starting lineup, after being left on the bench for the three most recent league matches. "It's frankly disappointing." he managed at the post-game interview, ice packs wrapped about his leg. "And I was just feeling so back in the flow too."
