Dragonflame
Tian Yonghang hailed an improved outing from the home embarassment last week, but this did not prevent the Birds from falling to last place in II.4, after Benfleet Branch 2 managed a 3-1 upset of the visiting Ang Mohs through Hermano da Cunha's excellent finishing. This had Benfleet level on points with Moeinsingapore, who had nothing on a rampant Random Curiosity FC, who won 4-1 on the back of their midfield dominance.
CE Sindiket 07 would stay in third place with a 2-0 denial of Arcturules, but this was somewhat outside of Tian's concern, as the head coach was beyond hiding that the Birds would be playing in Division Three next season. "That was always the expectation." he confirmed. "It's frankly more the level of an U-20 midfield, even one that has been growing beyond expectations."
Tian's Bunnies counterpart
Dalibor Kostadinović would also hint that they might be restarting afresh, after their title ambitions took a dive with today's 1-3 defeat to main rivals Dragon Devil's. It was a bad day on defence for the Buns, which had NS Verma, Phua Keong Kim and Kendrick Yang stun them in a horrid end to the first half.
Nguyễn Văn Chương did pull one back four minutes from the end, but it was academic by then.
"Not the best of days for us, but there's a lot to look forward to." Kostadinović noted. "There's so much potential bubbling up from the academy, that it's tough to decide how to carry on. But that's a good problem to have."
Grilled International would rack up another win in the Battle for Division IV tourney, as they smashed Romania's Tony's Team 3-1, buoyed by
Wang Hanxuan throughout.
Chua Jun Long would add a sly third goal in the 85th minute after Wang's brace, with the opponents' Alessandro Catucci then sent off for a second yellow for a last-ditch tackle.
Collin Kleden's attempt from the restart would be saved well by Tamás Katona, however, and Kristo Parkkulainen scored a consolation on the counter.
This made for a 2-1 aggregate win over IV.36 thanks to Al Khanal's walkover against FCKR 2, with The Sun men slipping for once against CF Nancy, in a close match that could have gone either way. In the end, the early initiative granted by Adarijus Simanovas and Marius Stanciu would be too much to overcome, not helped by Mahmoud El Nabawy's constant misfiring.
