No Luck Involved
Ong Deserving
It might have been a dead rubber with already-crowned league champions Good Luck FC given a guard of honour by the Grilled players as they trooped onto the pitch at The Cooking Pot, but the effortless manner in which they dismantled a near full-strength Birds XI 6-1 was still a sight to behold. This had former Joker 9 and Singapore U-20 star Ong Ho Seng reach 20 goals to also capture the Golden Boot, as the Pulau Ubin club bid farewell to Division Three.
The visitors' promise of positive, attacking football would attract over seventy thousand to the stadium, hearkening back to the old days, and this despite the drizzle turning into an all-out rainstorm as the match progressed. This might have made Good Luck FC's contribution all the more impressive, with their experienced front three of Ong, Víctor Chapari and Cuno Ulrich Littfeld menacing from the outset. Overall, the pace was slower than average though, and monotony of the first twenty-plus minutes would only be broken by Anzelm Filipski's brutal takedown of
Federico Parada, for which referee Tommy Andersson appeared to briefly consider sending the Polish fullback off.
That would eventually be commuted to a yellow card and a final warning, and Grilled would restart the more-determined team, if briefly; there would be no challenge on Parada by Filipski the next time he skipped past Mak Hao De, and the visitors would pay for that indecisiveness as several Grilled players converged on the left side, to receive the ball short. Parada would pick out
Orest Tokarz, who had come out of the box, and the Number Ten would find his reward after pulling it back from the chasing Yannick Rausch, as he put it hard into the far bottom corner.
That was as good as it got for Grilled Birds today, and they would be 1-3 down just six minutes later, as Good Luck FC embarked on a remarkable turnaround - all the more given the pitch conditions. They would have Ong Ho Seng to thank for much of that, however, but who would have thought Mario Reijerkerk capable of making such a torrid pace on the wet grass, to supply Ong for the immediate equalizer?
Damian Hutter would lose his footing to grant Nenad Ðorđević an open strike two minutes later, and it was then Ong again to provide the finish in the 31st, as
Dimitris Germanakos blundered his distribution.
That left the home support largely speechless, although they would find it in themselves to resume singing, as the Birds tried to pick up the pieces. There would be no sign of a breakthrough going into half-time, unfortunately, and it only got worse from there. Good Luck FC went to the left side with regular national winger Teng Hui Heng this time, and a sharp one-two against
Aw Keng Chuan would see Yannick Rausch in position to take the shot on, which he did with deadly precision for the fourth.
It was at least heating up for the Birds too, and they would create a noteworthy opportunity soon after Rausch's goal.
Federico Parada was again the creator with
Enrique Baena too often pulled inside to help out, and after another mesmerizing dribble down the touchline, the Grilled captain strung it across to
Phua Ming Xin... who lashed his volley with power, but alas straight at Manuele Colangiulo. The goalie admittedly didn't know much about the ball when it rebounded off him, and while
Orest Tokarz forced Nenad Ðorđević off the ball, there just wasn't enough time to assemble a proper shot.
Back to Good Luck FC strutting their stuff, then, as Grilled's defence again failed to hold up to questioning. Aw and Hutter tried hard, but they were simply not of the class to handle the opposition's well-versed front three yet. Ong Ho Seng was the fulcrum of it all as he pinged Teng Hui Heng's inbound delivery to Mario Reijerkerk without a second thought for an easy 5-1, and it would be his hat-trick 62 minutes in, via a wonderful lob that Germanakos could not be faulted on.
Even the most incorrigible die-hards in the gallery knew when they were well beaten as they feted Ong for what was his twentieth league goal of the season, and Good Luck FC responded by reeling themselves in for the final half an hour.
Tian Yonghang evidently thought there no point in trying to chase the game, as he reserved his substitutions for the last minute inclusion of
Paulino Trindade,
Radovan Jaška and
Gandhik Chitre.
