Hoseh Liao
Parada Attention
Geylang IV.43 flagbearers Hoseh bo had never made it past the third round of the Singapore Cup, and this season would be no exception as they were battered 1-8 by a fresh-looking Birds lineup.
Federico Parada and
Ibnou Balde made their full debuts at forward, with
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan starting his first cup match for Grilled. Two of the above would mark the occasion with a goal, leaving Balde to wait for his next chance.
The promise of exciting new faces had drawn over thirty-three thousand paying fans to Hoseh's stadium despite the terrible pitch condition, which could be attributed to the stop-and-start showers that had been ongoing for the past few days. If the home team were relying on that to bridge some of the gulf between the sides, however, it was not going to happen - and who else other than flavour of the moment
Chad Thach, to get things rolling? His double with the national U-20 side had revealed a more clinical side to his game, as flaunted when he stepped past his defender to help a square pass beyond Daniel-Mircea Beldiman, after seven minutes.
If that looked effortless,
Ibnou Balde's thundering run on Grilled's next possession was anything but, and he would have to survive a couple of attempted hacks to his legs only to curl the finish narrowly wide. Hoseh would stabilize after that, and began matching Grilled stride for stride for a time;
Bhavya Panigrahi had to force Ismail Yunus down for the first booking of the game in the 15th minute, and Hoseh would be level four minues afterwards, as a lack of mobility from Panigrahi allowed Jovan Bang to enter the box unimpeded.
Warning signs of a potential major upset flashed as the Birds were left looking clueless at times, which given that two of their number were bedding in, was perhaps not entirely unwarranted. More scrappy coverage followed with
Enrique Baena next to be cautioned for clattering Deng Lee Han, but Grilled did pull through and ahead. Ferzan had begun striking up a sort of understanding with Parada, and the two would interchange to devastating effect on the half-hour, which freed the Turkish winger for a lob that went in for 2-1.
Hoseh's momentum from their equalizer was fading in lockstep, and Bang would try too hard to get another one, as he willingly threw himself to the ground on their next attack, before
Damian Hutter had even gotten to him. Swiss referee Dölf Hugener tut-tutted as he gave one of the easiest yellows of his life, and would instead award a penalty at the other end soon after, calmly stroked home by
Chan Ze Han. Hutter would then make it 4-1 Grilled as he sighted from somewhat outside, for his first-ever cup goal for the Birds.
There was no longer any question of a Hoseh comeback after
Chan Ze Han doubled up five minutes after the restart, as Grilled began to impress themselves upon their hosts. The Grilled icon might be slowing at thirty-five, but there could absolutely be no doubt that his touch had not left him.
Aw Keng Chuan's skimmed pass appeared to have slightly too much pace on it for a proper shot, but Chan somehow threw himself into it, and got the barest of contact that got it past Beldiman.
Grilled's sixth and seventh goals would arrive in the next several minutes, with
Federico Parada officially introducing himself for the first of those. He had left it for Ferzan for the latter's first-half strike, and the favour would be returned this time around, as Ferzan squeezed a pass just wide of former Cats United midfielder Abd El Zaher Bayoumi, into Parada's path. The Bolivian youth international was far too good to let a chance of this calibre go begging, and he stretched with his right boot to send it past the hapless goalie.
Enrique Baena dribbled through to deposit another from the kick-off return, as the shell-shocked Hoseh bunch failed to put up much resistance. This was also
Tian Yonghang's cue to replace a weathered Panigrahi with
Gilbert Webb, and
Aw Keng Chuan capped the scoring with a speculative dipping drive with ten minutes to go. That also saw Hoseh veteran Tyron Chang out for at least a month, as he tore his right calf in the blocking attempt.
