Three All Out
Bova Goes To War
This season is already transpiring to be one of the most disappointing for the Birds in years, after they were dumped out of the Singapore Cup quarterfinals by East Coast Warriors, ending their cup ambitions for the time. This would be fourth time lucky for the Warriors, who have however always been difficult for Grilled to take down.
Despite Gerthard Asi's heroics last Wednesday, there would be no place for him today, as Italian international Patrizio Nastasi reprised his first-choice duties in goal. Otherwise, German head coach Rudolf Kempff had made just the one change for the Warriors from the starting XI that had been eliminated by Grilled last term, with Luis Enrique Yanes in and Nazir Mohd Umar out. The Birds for their part had sold both Bernie Egan and Mateja Jeftić, who had accounted for all three of their goals then, and this could only lend further credence to the suspicion that they had tweaked overly with their winning formula.
The overnight rain from yesterday would ensure that this was not about to be a technical showcase, which perhaps favoured the Warriors slightly more. On a four match winning streak, they saw little reason to wait for Grilled to go at them, and opened with relatively guileless if effective assaults.
Shekar Kannan would start today in the centre, and his rough re-induction to Singapore football would continue, as he found himself out-tussled by Francesco Bova at the head of the penalty area. His expected foul call wasn't forthcoming, and Bova would go on to put away a neat Yanes assist played just behind
Douglas Carapaica.
As a consolation, the Birds were no stranger to this by now, and they levelled through an elegant
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud drive, some three minutes later. Grilled were also beginning to take over in midfield, but the slow pitch made the rapid shifting game that they favoured moving forward, tricky to execute. Instead, they wound up falling behind again in the 24th, with Fynn-Paul Drelles breaking down the left side by himself. Bova was there again, and slammed it strongly past
Jānis Salmiņš at the goalie's near post.
Grilled's immediate response would not bear fruit a second time, with
Chu Xin Lee dribbling through the middle despite the packed defence, only to have his attempted chip batted away by Nastasi. Warriors were perhaps fortunate to have the match halted when it was, after Sheyh Inomov spotted
Vikram Mudaliar unintentionally kneeing Frank Simonsen in his sensitive bits, as both raced for the rebound. The drop-ball would be retrieved by the Birds, but Douglas' attempted forced entrance from the left would be foiled by Donald van de Steeg.
Chan Ze Han could hardly disguise his disgust as he trod off for half-time, but in fairness, Grilled could rightly still feel fairly good about their chances, from their ball possession stats. Transforming that into clear opportunities continued to be problematic, though, all the more with a custodian the quality of Nastasi keeping goal. Early camping around the Warriors box brought no joy, with Drelles going against script in getting past
Salah Kamel on the left once more.
Teo Chuan Yong tried to help cover, but the bending cross would elude him to the far post, where Julien Gallard made the most of the poor angle for 3-1.
This saw Chan really riled up now, but the acting captain could do nothing more than try to create against an ever-more compact Warriors defence. Kannan would be solid if hesitant to push too far, while Teo had never really been that offensively-minded, which left Chan to carry most of the attacking burden by himself. Moey and Kalki would be seen warming up on the touchline, but neither would ultimately be called upon as Nastasi saved from Kamel and then Heng in succession.
The Birds' situation then went critical with nine minutes to go, as they would again let Warriors in from out wide. Their attacking limitations aside, Kannan and Teo had been quite solid centrally, which might have been enough had Grilled been able to defend the outside spaces. Sadly, they weren't, and Adrian Medvedkov would earn a penalty off Chan, after the latter had pulled out all the stops to block his advance within the box. Danish defender Frank Simonsen stepped up to take it, and outwitted Salmiņš by slamming it hard down the middle.
This had to be an ignominious end to Grilled's cup campaign... or so it was, until
Douglas Carapaica cushioned it on his chest two minutes later, and somehow made room to shoot in the completely overpopulated Warriors penalty area. It appeared to take a slight deflection off Gallard, for the Panamanian's first goal in sixteen appearances. It then got very interesting indeed, when Chan shook off his prior disappointments, to slash past first Van de Steeg, and then Nastasi, after switching to the right. Grilled's resident genius could never be counted out, and if there ever was a strike to rouse the blood, this had to be it.
The final six minutes, and three more added afterwards, were all Grilled, but they would unarguably fail by the most important count - that of finding an equalizer.
Vikram Mudaliar would be hemmed in hopelessly at the corner flag as Inomov blew for time, which was also the signal for East Coast Warriors to celebrate one of their biggest victories in some years.
