Rugpull Exit
Ibnou Redeems
It has been six seasons since Grilled Birds last clashed heads against Crypto Moon in the S-League, but the passage of time has not changed their luck against the Serangoon high-fliers, as the Birds claimed a fifth straight victory in this fixture. Three Crypto Moon starters had remained from then - Jan-Willem Broekhuisen, Renato Čubrić and Joni Nisonen - with the last moreover having been promoted to captain in the meantime. Although this was not the best that they had to offer, with top stars such as Liviu Bulai being reserved for the league, it remained a very respectable scalp for this Birds team, who were not all first-choice either.
After the weekend's disappointing goalless draw,
Tian Yonghang had emphasized the importance of taking the game to the opposition
with intent to his players, and they seemed to have taken that advice to heart at Upright Stick of Justice's stadium. Few more so than the debuting
Phua Ming Xin, indeed, as he went off at full tilt straight from kick-off, to the right of centre forward
Orest Tokarz. Tokarz certainly enjoyed the service, with Phua barging into Broekhuisen and loosing the ball for a run in on goal in the eleventh minute, but the Pole unwisely tried to take it past French goalkeeper Alex Combes, who always had the better position then.
Grilled were doing a good job of maintaining the pressure, and were generally the more dangerous despite Crypto Moon not shrinking from risk themselves. Actual shots on target were not as easy to come by, granted, with Crypto Moon's Russian midfielder Ilya Komolikov sussing out plenty of Birds movements before they could really get going; Combes dealt with the rest, as when
Paulino Trindade came around the back to try and meet
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's sneaky reverse ball, only to be boxed out.
The Birds were pouring it on still, however, and there was only so much that even Combes could do. With thirty minutes gone, the Crypto Moon defenders had expended themselves tracking Grilled's forwards, which left
Hwang Teck Fu with room at the head of the box. He decided to approach further instead of just shooting, as the fans were screaming at him to, but it turned out for the best as he successfully dodged Arkadiusz Manyś' incoming sliding tackle, before dragging the ball to the far corner of goal.
Aw Keng Chuan then had to cradle his head as he blasted wide following Tokarz's lay-off from a corner, despite having the entire goal to aim at, and he would come closer with a violent strike off the bar in the 70th minute, with scarce anything of note in between other than
Enrique Baena's yellow card for holding up play.
Orest Tokarz continued to throw his weight about to fair effect, but came up short when it would have counted, as his concentration failed him when
Damian Hutter scuttled it over to him in the 73rd.
Crypto Moon were underperforming in terms of chances created, despite much creative work from Italian youngster Maurizio Fresu, and
Dimitris Germanakos would not be seriously tested until Henryk Goździkowski went for it three minutes after Tokarz's lapse. That save was made at full stretch, but there was no stopping Bogdan Paraschivu four minutes later, when Čubrić's looping header came off the angle between post and bar. Paraschivu was right where the ball went, and
Aw Keng Chuan threw himself at it to no avail.
With it back level and only ten minutes remaining, Fresu saw an opportunity to steal the game wholesale, but the penalty he went looking for was simply too obvious for referee Seweryn Wyciślik to accept, and the following protests would bring only a booking. Extra time - and a first draw for Crypto Moon after regular time, against the Birds - looked on the cards, but
Ibnou Balde tried with an unprepossessing grounder 83 minutes in, and for once Alex Combes was not up to the mark.
