JR Rejection
Heumann Being
The Birds' cup adventure came to an end for the season, as they were shut out by IV.59 leaders JR Football Club, in today's derby at Tarpots Rec. This would be JR's sixth victory in a row, vindicating Italian boss Patrizio Baratto's uncompromising defence-in-depth style of play; while chided as boring by some, it has nonetheless led them not to concede at all in those six games - including ones involving Benfleet Branch 2 and Crypto Moon - while scoring fifteen of their own.
37 year-old Swiss left winger Dieter Heumann would be their captain for the day, and he would coincidentally be JR's latest signing, despite arriving for some S$3.7 million from now-defunct Croatian outfit Mukinje do Indije, over three seasons ago. The period had seem them relegate from Division Three, but the squad remained good enough to walk IV.59, albeit with only ChAnCeee FC as serious contenders. Baratto had placed an emphasis on quick and sharp counters on the flanks, with much responsibility placed on defensive midfielder Luigi Larizza to shield his backline whereever needed.
The Birds would continue playing their youngsters against this challenge, with
Lim An Keng,
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Gandhik Chitre confronted with the epic problem of breaking past JR's five-man lock-and-chain - and mostly not succeeding. Their directness, while refreshing in other circumstances, lacked the subtlety required here, and it took
Kalki Parvathaneni's to just get one on target in the eleventh minute. Fausto Spina collected easily, but one sensed it was intended to just show it could be done.
There would be little built on their first strike, sadly, and it would be left to JR to make the next two for the half. The first saw Juha-Matti Tähkä somehow dribble his way out of his own box through at least three Grilled players, before sending it down the left channel for Heumann. It was helped on for Dario Rainieri, but
Bilal Mohammad Harun had his measure then. Ten minutes later, trainee Lam Wen Jia came away with it in Grilled's box after a long ball out was held up by Larizza, but fired well high.
If this match had all the looks of a nil-all plodder at half-time, it would only get even more so for the second half, despite the Birds doing all they could to shake it up.
Chia Kwang Tse and
Paulino Trindade came in, with
Moey Xin Seng then taking over from
Teo Chuan Yong as the main striker in the 60th minute, but JR's backline was simply far too solid. The only chance of note then for this second half would be Tähkä rising high to meet Zahid Rida Nahlan's dipping cross in the 72nd minute, but he sent it wide.
Dimitris Germanakos would eagerly rush to retrive it, having handled so little of the ball throughout, and the game itself would extend into extra time to no-one's particular surprise. It remained very difficult for the Birds as their simplistic attack patterns were read like a book, and Chia would make an embarassing dive ten minutes into the added time, which brought a straight yellow card from Belgian referee Kalisto De Vos. It was so bad, in fact, than
Chan Ze Han made to advice Chia not to argue, a suggestion which he fortunately heeded.
The Birds' doom would arise from the restart then, as JR made full use of the distraction that the initial protest had caused, to send the ball deep down the left side. Dieter Heumann knew exactly what he was waiting for, and his patience would finally pay off bit with both
Hwang Teck Fu and Bilal having advanced themselves in support. It was a straight and simple race for Heumann against Bilal - with an eight yard lead - then, and the Swiss winger would clip it around Germanakos with a practised ease.
The Birds didn't have long to salvage penalties, but their only true opportunity would come immediately afterwards, as a tired
Kalki Parvathaneni wheedled a corner out of JR. Bilal floated it to the far post where
Moey Xin Seng was lurking, but while Spina couldn't get to it, some good positioning by Tähkä had Moey head it weakly over.
