Grilled Birds 1 - 2
Haha 
Not Grim Enough
Aw Yes
Grilled Birds have not defeated Haha away from The Cooking Pot since the Woodlands club's Singapore Cup final win over them four seasons ago, and today's fourth attempt would end the same way as it had generally gone - a slim defeat. To be fair, Haha's only two losses - to Fringeheads in the league, and PD Dandy in the Hattrick Masters - in their eleven competitive matches this season have been exceedingly close, but watching the actual proceedings, it was natural to imagine what might have been had Grilled's stars been younger and fresher.
There were no tactical surprises here, other than the Birds dropping on-form captain
Moey Xin Seng, for a midfield trio of Bilal, Teo and Kamel.
Hilal Bakhtiar would explain this as due to wanting that bit of additional mobility in that area, and he was probably on the right track, but not quite enough. Haha had gone for a complete compression in their own half, with skipper Aw Tian Jin going as far as to man-mark
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud, which effectively took both of them out of the game for long stretches.
All the fans knew what was coming, and that was that every goal would count particularly heavily. The opening would be shaky, with Grilled effortlessly taking over most of the field, but making preciously little headway where it mattered. Much was hinging on
Heng Dong Chu creating down the left, and after much huffing and puffing, he earned a corner in the 27th minute. Taken short quickly by
Chan Ze Han, it would see Heng somehow send it through to
Shekar Kannan for a back post finish, but Grilled's other winger clipped it off the post in his haste.
Kannan knew the enormity of that miss, and Grilled would be hit by a second blow in short order, as
Vikram Mudaliar came off the worse in a collision with Vishvesharaiyah Gudivada. Moey's entry was not exactly unwelcome, but the returning captain would be exposed as Haha set off on one of their pivotal counters in the 37th. It was a three-on-three with Sorin-Dan Corbean leading down the right, and new Swiss forward Tinu Beugli tied the Birds defenders up just enough for Roger Viroux to come up from behind and open the scoring.
This was just what the Grilled supporters were dreading, as they understood what was to come - an even more total defensive effort. Well, there did remain some entertainment in watching Moey and company try to pick the lock, but with Abd Hadi mostly a non-factor, the link-ups with Chan were simply too obvious, for all of the latter's movement to try and find space. Half-time came and went, with next to nothing created by the Birds.
They understandably saw their best chances as deriving from the flanks, where Haha at least could not cover in such redundant fashion. Still, Corbean would be more than the equal of Heng in physical terms, and with Kannan no spring chicken either, his Argentine opposite number Juan Martín Barboza would mostly have his measure too. An exception came in the 66th minute, when Kannan really turned it on, but while he showed Barboza a clean pair of heels for once, he could not escape Chua Ze Xin, who had been waiting all along.
The Birds did warrant a pick-me-up after their sustained diligence here, and it would again be Moey to do the honours. Never having built his reputation on being a prolific scorer, Moey at nearly 37 years old would somehow be the go-to man for that at Grilled, for the current period. After receiving the ball from Heng at the edge of the box with the winger again closed down, Moey would spin around former national U-20 defender Isaac An with befuddling ease, before decisively taking it inside Lim Jie Feng to lash it past Giuseppe Teani's anticipatory dive.
This renewed hope didn't last for long, sadly. Although the match looked very likely to extend into extra time, there was always the possibility - if slight - of a winner, and this would be claimed by Haha. Beugli had been pretty good with his hold-up play for a fellow just returned from a three-week layoff for tendonitis, and he would win a free-kick off
Sølve Lunde, after threatening to put Corbean through. This allowed Aw Tian Jin to get the last laugh, as he raked an unstoppable strike over the late-jumping Grilled wall, and into the top corner.
