Luxury Tax
Germanakos Takes Knee
The Birds' revival continued with a 7-0 away stroll against Ubinites Offshore Haven, who are perhaps taking the concept a level deeper, given Singapore's own status. Results are however not quite up to head coach Cezary Dokurno's standards, with Haven having lost their last six games, and none in the league since opening day against KickzFC. 22 year-old local right winger Ghaffur Badrun has been their driving force thus far, with a sprinkling of foreign talent in Italian defender Franco Petrozzi, Belgian left winger Wim Jaminet and Romanian midfielder Dan Balabuc.
Tian Yonghang would see fit to reserve his best for midweek cup competition yet again, but from the ensuing developments, it could not be said that he was underestimating today's opponents. While Haven's 4-5-1 was suitably conservative, it was soon clear that the raw ability simply wasn't there, and
Phua Ming Xin would stretch his scoring run to five matches, eleven minutes in - quite the return for a forward much-bashed for drawing a blank in his first three!
Haven goalkeeper Mok Kum Da might have dealt with the relatively telegraphed strike a lot better, of course, but they all count if they go in.
Enrique Baena would dial up the heat a little as he prevented a free-kick from being taken, after he felt he was shortchanged in the exchange, at which referee Jean-Jacques Mergaerts penalized him with a booking. In any case, the free-kick came back the other way, and
Gandhik Chitre drew a top-class save by Mok with his curler. Haven then held on until the 37th minute, when roughhousing in the box allowed the Birds a penalty that
Atang Mangoye calmly directed in at the left post.
Offshore Haven were getting much encouragement from their Money Launderers fan club, who made up a substantial amount of the just-over 21,000 that had turned up today, and there was a roar of anticipation when Grilled flubbed defending a corner completely, and left Sky Davis with an open net... only for the fullback to hesitate, and allow
Damian Hutter to throw himself in the way. Worse, Grilled would up their lead to three a couple of minutes later in the 41st, as Davis appeared to have his mind elsewhere, and failed to cut out
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's forward pass to
Aw Keng Chuan.
Mangoye would be off at half-time, with
Mohsen El Khateeb taking over at the back, Aw in charge of set pieces, and Baena again the armband. Probably aware that keeping to their low block would get them nowhere, Haven were slightly more adventurous to begin the second half, which allowed
Hwang Teck Fu in after a defence-splitting ball in the 53rd. On the other hand, they should really have gotten a consolation following Dan Balabuc's energetic dribble took him past several Grilled players straight from kick-off, and he even got it to young striker Ng Xin Chin - who however had
Dimitris Germanakos contort himself to ward the excellent grounder aside.
That miss seemed to hit Haven's aspirations hard, and they would never quite threaten Grilled's goal again, with
Gandhik Chitre adding another two goals by the 72nd minute, and
Paulino Trindade gradually working himself into the game. The Birds would have to take Germanakos off after he pulled up sharply following a goal-kick in the 73rd minute, with
Manuel Vadalà happy enough to come on.
Bilal Mohammad Harun then replaced
Ibnou Balde right before the end, in time to help win another penalty that Aw duly blasted high into the top left corner of goal.
