Green Club, Green Cups
Finished Business
This particular Grilled Birds golden generation may be reaching its end, but there would be one more honour in their trophy cabinet, as they bumped Robbie Football Club for their third Emerald Challenger Cup, and seventh overall. It was a tense, stressful finals, as arguably befit the occasion, with both teams having a record in the competition. RFC had won it twice too entering the match, the latest of course just last season against the Birds, after a drawn-out penalty duel.
It would be a repeat at Tarpots Rec., then, in spirit as well as name. The clubs' identities were too fixed for there to be much invention at this stage of their development, though RFC did shift plenty of their players around in their 5-5-0, as compared to before. Goalkeeper Dennis Koenigsegg and goalscorer Ally Chappell had gone, with new faces Howard Toman and Even Raud in their place. Frenchman Artur Forestier would also make his start at rightback, with Bonifacy Fiks relegated to the bench.
While Robbie Football Club might be a known quantity, their conservative distance-shooting style is definitely no joke, from how it has taken them to the top of the S-League, midway through the season. Other than a 0-2 away defeat to Haha, they had won five and drawn two of their remaining games, a ratio well worthy of becoming champions. This was moreover a team effort, with goals coming every which way; their sixteen in the league is behind only the famously-aggressive St. Xavier's FC, with Turkish star Bülent Algüzar's four being the most from any individual.
This diffusion of threats had left opponents struggling to shut them down, and the Birds were hardly about to be an exception. Instead, their approach was to make the other team do the worrying, as always.
Salah Kamel would be restored to the starting lineup after his suspension, what more as the centerpiece of Grilled's midfield.
Bilal Mohammad Harun was deployed at right wing after having missed the previous final, and the forward line saw
Kalki Parvathaneni trusted to do the necessary, alongside Chan and Mudaliar.
The match was always expected to be somewhat tetchy, but surely few had correctly figured out how it would start. RFC settled deep straight from kick-off, as if daring Grilled to test them, and Kamel would oblige. The Palestinian was notably one of the few regulars yet to hold an Emerald Challenger Cup, and certainly the longest-serving of them all - an unwanted record he was eager to set straight. It wouldn't take long too as
Heng Dong Chu danced past first Forestier, and then Algüzar, entering from the left, and Kamel only had to be in the right spot, to invite the pass. American goalkeeper Howard Toman would not get anywhere near the devastating finish, for all his S$17.4 million price tag.
This second-minute opener meant that the finals would enter its contentious phase rather earlier than expected, and if there would not be much actual football of note for the rest of the half, there was no lack of talking points. With the Birds still attacking merrily, it was mostly all RFC could do to push them from the danger zone, though it was not as if they posed no threat of their own. Hungarian playmaker Patrik Gulyás would find himself poised to strike in the 37th minute, only to be brutally upended by
Douglas Carapaica. That looked a potential straight red, but Spanish referee Eliseo Guerra eventually settled for a yellow and stern talking-to, with Bonifacy Fiks restored to the Robbie XI.
It wasn't getting any less heated for that, and if anything, the atmosphere got only more turbulent as half-time approached. After a pedestrian effort from Arturo Brettoni, and then a great save by Toman off Mudaliar, there would be a spontaneous scuffle after
Teo Chuan Yong went down in pursuit of the ball. Replays suggested that he had exchanged several inadvertent foot-stomps with Darius Linskens in the chase, but
Heng Dong Chu didn't see it that way, and confronted the Dutch winger with a shove to the chest. That was just asking for it, and the red would be out now for Heng, with Teo ironically having to be replaced too, by
Sølve Lunde.
Well, it could hardly have gone much better for Robbie Football Club in this exchange, and they must have figured that if they wanted an equalizer, now was as good a time as any. Mudaliar would have another attempt cleared, this time early, and it went out to substitute Bonifacy Fiks wide right. Excellent defending by
Gilbert Webb saw the ball intercepted before reaching the Pole, however, and it would soon be headed the other way, towards
Chan Ze Han. The Grilled forward would be too free with his elbows in a losing battle against Jonas Vrubelevsky, however, and Guerra would have a card out for a third time.
The Birds retained the all-important goal advantage at least, and from how their opponents had barely managed to get a couple of Hail Marys off in the first half, it could very well be enough. The second half started with Grilled playing notably more conservatively, with
Sølve Lunde's natural inclination being to seek the safe pass. It wasn't like he couldn't support attacks when it made sense, however, as with a 59th minute move that saw him advance all the way to the opposition's six-yard box. Lunde even got the shot off against all odds, but Toman was too good not to have it covered.
Grilled's next breakthrough started from a huge goal kick from
Jānis Salmiņš, who seemed to have strained his calf slightly in the execution - but judging from what it brought, he would have done it again.
Moey Xin Seng rose highest as so often happens to bring it down for
Salah Kamel, who immediately unleashed a through ball for
Chan Ze Han. Chan was no stranger to such, having scored twice in this very finals last year, and there would be no change as he dribbled past the last man coolly, and released a perfectly-placed grounder for 2-0.
That definitely looked like the game for Grilled, but their injury woes had barely subsided.
Vikram Mudaliar, unlucky twice already, seemed likely to score when
Bilal Mohammad Harun squeezed a fine cross inside after 74 minutes, but instead clashed heads brutally against Bülent Algüzar. Neither got off lightly, but Mudaliar seemed to have taken the worst of it, and he would be urgently substituted with
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud after having trouble keeping his balance in the aftermath.
If RFC were to make their move, it had to be about now, and they would start understandably throwing caution to the wind. They turned out to be fairly convincing pressing upfield in mass, and Linskens would be afforded an open look from about ten yards after some distribution around the box, but hit it into the side-netting. Grilled's response had Abd Hadi rushing a lob slightly overhead, and then
Gilbert Webb try one from distance - quite badly, honestly.
And then, the reducer. Just when it felt like Robbie Football Club had all but given up, they maneuvered Even Raud into his favoured sniping position, slightly to the right side at the head of the penalty area. This had to be something that the Grilled team knew to look out for, but especially at this stage of the match, their marking had become relatively lax. The Estonian would smash it as
Douglas Carapaica approached belatedly, and it was a drive worthy of beating any goalkeeper, as it did Salmiņš.
This certainly made the final ten minutes a lot more exciting than it otherwise would have, but as it turned out, Raud's goal was a flash in the pan. Grilled would not be too much trouble in dragging the time out, and they would confirm the win with
Moey Xin Seng spinning for one last strike - that shaved the top of the crossbar.
