Repeat Retread
Federico Down
tpyers could do no better against Grilled Birds in their own stadium, as they fell to the exact same 1-7 defeat that they had sustained last weekend. This was admittedly an upgraded cast by the Birds after their Cup elimination, with the return of
Federico Parada and
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan to the flanks being perhaps the area of biggest improvement. Alas, the Bolivian Number Eight - and acting captain - would not last the day, as he was stricken with a serious ankle injury about twenty minutes before the end.
The hosts had some switching of their own too, with Derek Dizon glaringly left out of the squad, and his vital central midfield role taken over by Mo Jia Aik. Jeppe Svold and Zsolt Sajtos were out too as Yeo Kian Kiong reformulated his left wing, with younger duo Cheah Rong Chin and Ty Harada given an opportunity to prove themselves. All these nuances were sadly lost as Grilled scored within the first few minutes once more, with there surely now being few worries about
Phua Ming Xin being able to find the net, as he dodged the last man to clip it past Antonio Ramenghini with about 100 seconds on the clock.
Yeo might have had occasion to regret his player choices soon, as tpyers' left soon revealed itself to be rather callow in their self-estimation. This was not going to work against a winger the stature of
Federico Parada, who would create two goals by the 19th minute, with
Chia Kwang Tse and
Orest Tokarz scoring in turn from the turmoil Parada caused. Harley Heng did claw one back for tpyers in between, as Lim Ming Ming swept a cross in that Heng got a fortutious touch on.
The pace of the match would not slow for a while yet, with
Joe Reece battling especially hard, but simply not getting the ball where he wanted it for the most part. This had the combative Welshman get handsy on the defenders more than once, for which he was finally cautioned by referee Emanuelis Liansbergis, 24 minutes in. In comparison, Parada knew exactly what to do both with and without the ball, and it would be to take it on by himself for 4-1, three minutes after that card.
The home fans had mostly made their peace with the likely outcome as the second half begun, even as Ramenghini received a couple of very lucky breaks from well-executed corners, as Phua and then Ferzan crashed good attempts into the same goalpost, some fifteen minutes apart. Parada would be booked for a late jump into Sreejit Subramanian in the 56th, soon followed by a bad decision by Foster Ito to try and dribble it across his own goalmouth out of danger... and right into a predatory
Joe Reece. The inevitable happened, for Grilled's fifth.
It was not a question if the Birds could better their record from last Sunday, and the odds certainly looked good when they came within one with over twenty minute remaining. Grilled - and Parada - remained probing tpyers' less-experienced left side busily, and few could fault Harada from finally cracking under the relentless pressure, what more with it being against an
Orest Tokarz in full flight. There was no stopping the Pole once he got his nose in front of a late-arriving Ishikawa too, and his preferred finishing method of putting his laces through the ball with his right boot would suffice.
Grilled's quest would then hit a snag as Parada, their best creator on the day, called for his teammates to put the ball out in the 71st minute, as he crumpled trying to take the ball around a defender on the touchline. Replays would reveal that he had caught his right foot on the turf in trying one of his moves then, which had his ankle bent at an unnatural angle for an instant. It was clearly swollen as the medics removed his sock to take a look, and Parada would shortly be off, to be replaced - also as skipper - by
Enrique Baena.
A spate of poor finishing would follow Parada's departure, with no fewer than three quite miserable misses in the next six minutes; Tokarz, being on a hat-trick, felt the disappointment most keenly when Ramenghini sprang sideways to block his 72nd minute thunderbolt, but
Joe Reece and
Phua Ming Xin were clearly let down too, after having their efforts cleared off the line and clip the outside of the post respectively. There would be another long stoppage with Sreejit Subramanian downed after wrenching his left knee, which eventually led to 18 year-old Jaafar Zainal making his fifth professional appearance.
Orest Tokarz would be a sport about leaving his treble on the table, as he left for perhaps the most-anticipated return from injury for Grilled Birds, in many a season -
Chan Ze Han was back! The cheering from the away stands would almost drown out the commentator's announcement of
Gandhik Chitre on for
Joe Reece, as a smiling Chan waved languidly to his fans. The additional five minutes would not be without fruit for Grilled either, as
Enrique Baena drove down the left side to pop Chan's assist home in a magnificent combination between the two late subs, before characteristically spoiling his moment with a mean-spirited tackle on Yeoh Jing De that had to be a yellow card.
