Fried By Bacons
Teo Touch
Thai Cup winners Bacon SuperDelight, who came close to doing the national double too, gave the Birds a stern warning on their final friendly of the season: that they had a lot more to do, without exaggeration. It wasn't even anywhere near their best XI either, with Tan Guangxing and Kiattisak Banyam left out, although Puchong Yingklaidee did start at left forward, a month after earning his first cap against Ecuador. Former Swedish youth international goalkeeper Olle Bohlius, a S$27 million signing, would be stationed between the posts too.
Against this, the Birds' chosen looked unavoidably diminished, and what big names they had left were deployed in unfamiliar positions, if at all.
Teo Chuan Yong, notably still wearing his Number Fourteen shirt despite his official switch, would be left on the bench. As for acting captain
Bilal Mohammad Harun, he would fill in at sweeper again, despite continually confirming that he had no real proficiency in that role.
The rain couldn't have helped in drawing spectators, but SuperDelight remained a big enough attraction to pull over four thousand to The Cooking Pot. The visitors appeared to be taking it easy in the initial exchanges, with Grilled enjoying some brief success on the flanks, where SuperDelight had fielded their own newbies. Sun Yuanxi bounced off
Paulino Trindade as Grilled's Sao Tome trainee dragged him all the way across the breadth of the field before delivering a cross, but that was no challenger for Bohlius to claim.
The Thai club would gradually get more serious, and as they wrangled control, faultlines began to open up in the Birds' defence. Belgian midfielder Kenny Van Opstal took advantage in the 28th minute, when he made it inside, and attempted the chip with
Cameron Law baited to approach; it worked. Walerian Dubicki would be stopped at the last instant by
Aw Keng Chuan two minutes later, but soon enough, Van Opstal's strike partner Daniel Hubmann would stick a second goal past Law, after a well thought-out through pass.
Chia Kwang Tse came on to try his luck in the second half, but wound up mostly chasing shadows like
Lim An Keng before him. Yongyut Sakunpichetrut aside, the visitors' central midfielders were all several cuts about Grilled's trainees, and even the deep-sitting
Lau Chu Soon could do little to shield his defence. Dubicki would be especially active bombing forward, and he scattered Bilal and Tran in making it 3-0 by the 52nd minute.
José Luiz Velho, who had barely gotten a sniff, would be taken off as a precaution after twisting his right ankle in the 61st, which meant that Teo got a look-in. His impact was pretty great, actually; a minute after Yingklaidee got his expected goal following a slaloming incursion down the left, Teo scored the Birds' first, with
Enrique Baena coming up with the assist. The Spanish youngster's irreverence was refreshing as he kept picking himself up despite numerous failed tries at getting past Emilio Gilg and former South Korean international Jung-Chan Lee, and as it transpired, just once was enough to make the difference.
SuperDelight remained clearly on top, however, and were proficient enough to threaten from a vast array of angles. Bert Reinwald whipped one in strongly from outside the box in the 73rd, and although seemingly intended for Yingklaidee, it wound up creeping in at the far post by itself. No skin off the nose of the Thai striker either, as he found a way past Grilled's defence two minutes later, despite
Dante Tran making way for
Gilbert Webb. Aw came close with his sliding block, but not quite enough to prevent Yingklaidee getting it off for 6-1.
While Grilled were definitely not going to turn this one around, claiming a second goal for the home fans was not beyond them, and
Bilal Mohammad Harun might well have done it with his terrific free-kick, eight minutes from time. It seemed to have crossed the line after coming down off the crossbar, but Austrian referee Lukas Binder decided not - and with the stadium's cameras under maintenance, there would be no gainsaying him. There would be some minor chagrin at the close as Van Opstal seemed to go in unnecessarily hard on Lau, but the Grilled midfielder would take it in his stride, to his credit.
