Went Out Fighting
Vikram Gets Going
Kungfu 11 might have disposed of Sarcastic Fringeheads and Edbe FC in previous cup rounds, but their giantkilling acts would hit a wall against the Birds.
Vikram Mudaliar had not hidden his fretting over a lack of product in recent weeks, and he would more than come good, against the brave Division Three competitors. Relishing in his role at the spearhead of Grilled's attack, the Number Nine toiled for his hat-trick, and earned it just in time.
Kungfu head coach Wu Seng Choon carried on with his strange practice of replacing starting goalkeeper Png Li Beng with Didi Milliard in the first minute, but from the results it has enabled, who can blame him? An S$11.1 million acquisition from Akademia FFK, the 22-year old Milliard's heroics have buoyed Kungfu through eight wins in their nine competitive matches thus far this term, the only exception before today being a 0-1 away loss to Farmer Bunnies, and that only due to
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany's late breakthrough.
Wu was hardly brash enough not to adapt his team to some extent against Grilled, and his main tweaks would be to go for a more compact back three, with Ong Yeng Eng moreover sitting further back as a defensive midfielder. Skipper Darius Wing was moreover switched to the right, to target the Birds' shakier right defence, which had
Kalki Parvathaneni manning it today.
Hilal Bakhtiar would switch some players about too, as
Chu Xin Lee went up,
Chan Ze Han dropped back to midfield, and
Teo Chuan Yong coming inside.
Sølve Lunde was a notable omission from the starting XI, with
Gilbert Webb preferred alongside
Bhavya Panigrahi.
Bakhtiar had freely expressed his wariness of Kungfu 11's ability to knock bigger sides out before the match, and there were no signs from the Grilled players, of underestimating their opponents here.
Chan Ze Han, captaining the team today, was particularly unafraid of getting stuck in - most often against direct opponent Alex Duncan - as an early warning. On Kungfu 11's part, their resistance would be stiff, but it was soon clear that it could only be a matter of time before thir backline was breached.
Grilled were serious, but not in any special hurry, as they held the ball inside Kungfu 11's half in search of major openings. A couple of probing attempts would be gathered easily by Milliard, before the real deal arrived in the 26th minute. With
Bilal Mohammad Harun advancing down the middle, both
Chu Xin Lee and Abd Hadi ran towards him to help, and found themselves involved in a delightful passing move sweeping from flank to flank.
Vikram Mudaliar set himself up nicely to receive the final ball, and all of Milliard's stellar reflexes did him no good, after being decisively outpositioned.
Wu was too canny not to recognize that it was going bad for his team, and had Mahesh Naravatte go off for Tan Wai Tian in the 35th minute, if not entirely willingly. This might have provided some extra protection against
Heng Dong Chu, but the Birds were having their best success forcing it down the middle anyway; Kalki and Chan would have them 3-0 up in the next few minutes, and the half would end with an incredible display of the goalkeeper's art, by Didi Milliard. It was no exaggeration to say that the Birds might have been as many as six goals up, had it not been for him.
It was well that time ran out when it did for Milliard, from how he seemed to have landed awkwardly on his right knee on his final block against Mudaliar, but there would be no let-up once play resumed.
Kalki Parvathaneni's tricky dribbling would see him caught late by Goh Chee Rong in the 50th minute, and Kungfu 11's wall didn't seem to cover as much of the goal as it should have, as
Bhavya Panigrahi threaded the needle to the near post.
That would mark the end of Fung Aik Hao's day too, but credit to the 19 year-old, he had never let up despite having started the day with a bandaged left knee. Augustus Chan entered but made no better impression in midfield, as Kungfu 11's intent of striking on the counter continued to amount to nothing. Their main striker Ciprian Pojan had dropped well into his own half in search of the ball, which was generally not forthcoming.
Well,
Vikram Mudaliar would have quite acceptable service of his own, and he got his second - and Grilled's fifth - in the 65th minute, after
Chan Ze Han released the necessary through pass right on cue. Hattrick Masters goalscorer
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud would get an early rest with
Moey Xin Seng coming in for the final twenty minutes, not that Moey was there simply to make up the numbers. Six minutes after coming on, he would drive inside against former national youth defender Ng Chang Jing, and put it only narrowly wide after avoiding Milliard's outstretched leg.
Mudaliar, seldom shy about making himself heard nowadays, had been screaming for it then, but he would complete his hat-trick via another avenue.
Chan Ze Han would head a corner straight to the goalkeeper in the 81st minute, and Milliard would finally make a mistake, as he flubbed his punch then; the ball only went as far as an unprepared Ong Yeng Eng, and thence back to Mudaliar, who gleefully tapped it home from four yards.
