For Another Day
Padding The Balance
Ang Mohs in flip flops wouldn't try too hard in their trip to The Cooking Pot today, and the result was an 8-0 sweep for the Birds. Then again, this followed a string of three losses and a draw in the league for the struggling Ang Mohs, who have not tasted victory in II.4 since pulling one over SingaStyle in the fourth week.
Under-fire Ivorian head coach Yann Kablan was adamant that their four-all draw against Club Dinosauria would be a turning point, but this was evidently not so; the recent departures of Mark Schüler and Fabio Max-Theurer seem to have hit squad cohesion more than admitted, and while Kablan has reinvested in Qatari goalkeeper Hareb Al-Qaatri and and Romanian all-rounder Darius Ionescu - to the tune of S$14.5 and S$9.3 million respectively - it is probably safe to say that neither have lived up fully to expectations thus far.
Nonetheless, this had to be as good a time to visit The Cooking Pot as any, with the Birds missing
Teo Chuan Yong,
Vikram Mudaliar and
Heng Dong Chu. It is such times that Bakhtiar's continued commitment to strength in depth would be appreciated, and the reshuffle saw
Moey Xin Seng move up into attack, though it has to be reminded that he has had no issue scoring goals either way.
Sølve Lunde would anchor the midfield today, with
Shekar Kannan worryingly still not included, as
Kalki Parvathaneni and
Chu Xin Lee started ahead of him on the flanks.
That was more than good enough to take the points, as it transpired. The visitors clearly had the heft, but perhaps not the application, as they seemed confused at times in a mirror 2-5-3. Hugo Henni and Darius Ionescu would sit low in midfield, but their effectiveness of such was doubtful against an adaptive Grilled midfield. This had Chu breeze in from the right side in the sixteenth minute as
Bhavya Panigrahi floated one through the air, for instance, and the Number Nineteen exhibited a touch of outlandish flair, in sending it on the half-volley, in off the bar.
Al-Qaatri's bad day had only begun, but it would be Ionescu to exit before that, after he took a wild sliding challenge by Kalki full-on. That had Samuel Felix Schütte come on, just in time to watch as
Douglas Carapaica somehow found himself in possession right outside the Ang Mohs' penalty area, and further made it inside to finish powerfully. Italian forward Carmelo Virtuani would throw a fit at another supposed foul on him not being acknowledged, which brought only a yellow card for himself, and a distraction that Kalki took full advantage of, in dashing past Vito Stefančič for 3-0.
The home fans were savouring the match very much indeed, and after a great combination between Chu and Douglas ended with the latter putting Grilled further up in the 34th, it was mostly a question of how many they would end up with. Al-Qaatri wouldn't let the free-scoring go on for longer, however, and he would make a bunch of excellent stops before the half was out, denying Kalki a potential hat-trick - and Panigrahi a superb free-kick.
Those goal-line heroics did not put the Ang Mohs any closer to taking something from this fixture, though, and in truth they seemed to have mostly conceded the game as the second half went on. True, Kablan would pull Laurin Étienne Zrost for Haiko Ascher just before the hour mark, but that seemed more a damage limitation exercise, than any ambition to drive for a comeback. The Birds weren't exactly flying too, at least not before an increasingly-hampered
Chu Xin Lee was replaced by
Shekar Kannan against Ascher, in the 70th.
That changed the complexion of the game again, what with Amani Mokhtar beginning to insert himself into the conversation in the minutes leading up to the substitution. Kannan would set things right there, and Grilled would start to bust their way through the middle again. Panigrahi would do from open play what he couldn't from a set-piece in the 73rd, as a brilliant through ball from
Bilal Mohammad Harun found him cruising through the middle. Opposing captain Eduardo Carlos Angel threatened to stick a foot in, but Panigrahi had gone for it by then, and squeaked it in at the far post.
More was to come, but not for
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud, who had been okay enough in drawing attention as Grilled's centre forward, but had not posed much danger directly by himself - which would be the story for all three of the Birds' forwards, in fact. Abd Hadi's only real shot on target took eighty minutes to arrive, after
Salah Kamel had made full use of
Chan Ze Han's tee-up to make it 6-0. Unfortunately for Abd Hadi, Al-Qaatri was looking out for it, and not even a wicked last-second swerve threw the goalkeeper off.
José Luiz Velho would replace Abd Hadi with five minutes remaining, and
Radovan Jaška given a few minutes in place of Bilal just before full time, as he rubbed shoulders with Ang Mohs trainee Margabandhu Bendre on the sidelines. Premature leavers would miss two extra goals in injury time, though, first with
Salah Kamel's long-range missile throwing the defence into disarray, and allowing Kannan in to assist a delighted Velho. Kalki would then prey on some laziness in the backline, to collect yet another league goal.
