Hard Times All Around
Moey Xin Seng would have to comfort a distraught Chia as the youngster absorbed both the heavy defeat and a personal booking, and the 37 year-old senior found himself unable to promise that it would get better. "The boys played to the best of their ability, it simply wasn't enough. I am sorry for the fans, but they may have to get used to this for awhile."
Farmer Bunnies will join the Birds on the friendly circuit after crashing out of the Ruby Challenger Cup at this stage too, against III.4 favourites Edbe FC. There would not be as much history between them and Edbe as the Birds had, but the inherited association would be enough to draw quite the crowd to Arch Angel.
Gilberto Sorondo and Omar Lima made wondersaves within seconds of each other early in the first half, but Dre Harrison and then Tillmann Tremmel ran it up to 2-0 for Edbe. The Buns embarked upon a multitude of counterattacks to no avail, until
Vitaliy Efendiev's 86th minute strike that came far too late.
With this, Serbian gaffer
Dalibor Kostadinović hinted at a clearout at the club, in the style of what Grilled Birds had done. "It's hard to see how we can reasonably progress from this situation." he confessed. "Let us just say that the board are keeping all options very open."
The Buns getting knocked out in the Round of 32 of the King of Football Cup probably did them no favours in that respect either, as All Canadian representatives Murray Harbour Bruins brutally exposed their 5-3-2 as being not quite here nor there. Bulgarian striker Dimitar Angelov led the way to a clear 5-2 victory, although there were faint hopes of a reversal after
Kwek Yun Jie and
Vitaliy Efendiev fought back to 3-2 in the 72nd minute.
Grilled International then were the only ones to keep the flag flying in cup competition, as they outdid Norwegian V.210 club Kolpino 78 by four goals to two, in the H.I. Sapphire Challenger Cup. As with the Buns against the Bruins, Kåre Samuelsen levelled late for Kolpino, but
Wang Hanxuan cut their comeback short with a fabulous solo effort almost immediately.
Safari bin Hj Jali then had the last word, by heading an Atzenhain corner into the net.
