Old Meets New
Kalki, Teo Rollback
Today's friendly would be across some streets at the H.A.L affiliate of S-League club newbies are newbies, and while VI.309's Rob the Newbies lost 0-4, it was hardly a poor outcome for the budget outfit. Head coach Lim Da Ying had bought just two foreign trainees - Piero Filannino and André Ricardo Cordeiro Ferreira - for a combined sum of under six figures, and exciting striker Lai Chu Rong would lead a wholly-local outfield with heart if not overwhelming skill.
Fresh off their tournament commitments, the Birds would give oldies
Teo Chuan Yong and
Bilal Mohammad Harun starts up top, and reserve players
Atang Mangoye and
Radovan Jaška more exposure at the back. That aside, the rest of Grilled's team had to be enough to test the hosts severely, which was evident from kick-off with
Enrique Baena skipping past several men on the right, before being awkwardly herded off for a corner kick.
20 year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper Ferreira might have cost just ten thousand from his original club, Dimonios Team, but his value to Rob had to be way above that, from his showy double save about the eighth minute; he first took it off Bilal's feet, before sticking a leg out to stop
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's putback on instinct. He couldn't hold out by himself forever, it went without saying, and
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan would go around Quah Meng Jin's left side, to make it one-nil a bit later.
It was a bit of a miracle that the match went as long as seventeen minutes before German referee Vincent Alexander dealt out the first card, to Aw Tian Cheng for tying up a very agile
Gandhik Chitre. Defensively, Rob were just about getting by, largely due to Ferreira's outsized heroics. He would be strafed from all directions, with two saves in particular standing out: off
Paulino Trindade's excellent lob in the 21st minute, and another big hit by Bilal seven minutes later, that was perhaps just too close to his body.
This performance had Ferreira feted by the supporters at half-time, as Tian swapped Chitre and Bilal out for
Aw Keng Chuan and
Kalki Parvathaneni. Aw wouldn't take long to be involved, as he made some bombing runs forward, only to see a superb header off Baena's 55th minute cross acrobatically clawed over. The mental toll finally overtook Ferreira in the 69th, as he spilled Trindade's header from a corner off the upright, and Kalki was simply too cunning to let a mistake like that go unpunished. 2-0.
The home team's resolve would waver a little there, for all of Aw Tian Cheng's constant exhortations, and Baena would profit as he latched on a Husain Khairul Akmal Wahid pass played short, for the third goal in the 76th minute. There was no luck for Grilled's Aw next either as a breathtaking lob effort from over thirty yards swung narrowly wide, but Alexander would spot some hanky-panky in the penalty area soon afterwards, which was an invitation for
Teo Chuan Yong to convert handily from the spot. Ferreira had actually guessed the direction correctly then, to his further credit.
The friendly wound down with Ferzan getting his name taken down too for barging Abd Hadi Mohd Sabre into the hoardings with unnecessary force, which Abd Hadi responded classily enough. Teo went off for
Moey Xin Seng just in time for the Grilled legend to take a free-kick on the edge of the box, and Ferreira simply wasn't in the mood to be respectful, as he plucked the ball away from the top corner to a rueful shake of the head from Moey.
