Flowers Picked
Enrique Relief
The Birds overcame
Enrique Baena's early own goal to overcome IV.36 opponents Korean Flower today, with
Gandhik Chitre tasting his first-ever senior goal. It was a remarkably close-run affair in spite of the Birds' clear advantage in midfield, with significant issues in them converting their possession to actual threats. This would also happen to be
Bilal Mohammad Harun's 250th competitive start for the club, an occasion which would be marked by a sustained ovation from the fans in the stands.
That done with, it became a story of the Birds pushing into the Flowers' defence - and mostly failing - with their Thai warrior Kitisak Kongsul doing a fine job of screening his centrebacks. Korean Flowers' main hopes would rest on 23 year-old star striker Choo Hui Hui, who was a clear cut above anyone else they had on-pitch. His class was such that Bilal never looked remotely capable of containing him whenever he had the ball at his feet, which would play a large part in their seventh-minute opener.
Then, a seemingly-routine pass played forward by Lucian Focşăneanu would see Choo break away from Bilal's marking, and threaten to score directly on a rapid advance on
Manuel Vadalà. The Grilled goalie would do well to close the angle and force Choo to square it instead, but the sheer mass of players following up on the now-unguarded goal always raised the risk of accidents.
Enrique Baena's hardworking attitude was both pride and sorrow, as he reached the cross first just ahead of Gerhardt Leibniz, but could then only redirect it into his own net with his attempted clearance.
This was tough indeed for the Spanish lad, who would be roundly consoled by his teammates, as the Flowers side rejoiced. One big consolation was that Grilled had all the time in the world to recover, and Baena indeed would come close to making up for it by himself, when he wriggled through their defenders in the 25th minute. Cordell Luong made the block, however, and Baena was left wondering if he should have tried to play it to the waiting
Chan Ze Han instead.
That wound up to be the closest Grilled Birds would come in the first half, as they had to re-evaluate their odds against the Flowers, whom some pundits had put down as easy takings beforehand.
Lim An Keng's entry for
Chia Kwang Tse gave them a minor shot in the arm, but it was Flowers who nearly extended their lead in the 54th minute.
Manuel Vadalà nearly played himself by moving too soon on Lai Tze Heng's free-kick, and only just reversed course successfully to improvise a save.
The Birds did finally level up two minutes after that, as their sustained siege of the Flowers goal paid off. There wasn't too much to write home about the build-up, which remained remarkably run-of-the-mill even for this set of trainees, but it did at least prove that they were capable of replicating basic passing drills faithfully.
Gandhik Chitre's initiative would be the critical factor as he gained a step on Lai Tze Heng right before
Kalki Parvathaneni released the pass, and it was one-all.
This would shake the previously-confident Flowers side up a bit, and they looked jittery with it all back to square one. Forward Nicholas Eng would attempt to seize the lead again, and went down perhaps a bit too easily on a shoulder-to-shoulder run with
Aw Keng Chuan. His protests would be too much for the referee, who dealt him the first and only yellow of the game.
Tian Yonghang would take the opportunity to replace Kalki with
Moey Xin Seng in the aftermath of the booking, which had the teams also go for a mutually-agreed water break. Moey's entrance would further buoy Grilled's young midfielders, and the all-important second goal would follow twelve minutes later, as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul struck it hard and true in his shadow.