Another Pragmatic Win
Chitre Check
It has been sixteen seasons since the Birds last encountered Orchard club Talpons in II.2, but the passage of time has not altered the final result, with
Gandhik Chitre firing Grilled into a straightforward 4-1 mauling.
Kalki Parvathaneni was the only link to that past, as he came on with a minute remaining, but the match has long since been decided by then.
Talpons had ping-ponged between the second and third divisions in that period, but this has arguably been one of their better squads, with 31 year-old Ukrainian midfielder Petro Pasenko accounted as one of the best in their league. German goalkeeper Drago Seyfer and his defence had been considered one of their weaker links, though, which suited the Birds just fine;
Phua Ming Xin was up for another productive day, with
Gandhik Chitre and
Ibnou Balde backing him up.
Grilled Birds would instead be the first to have their organization called into question, however, as
Damian Hutter continued his quite unedifying streak, of entirely avoidable mishaps. There seemed little to fear from Jan Josephsen's vanilla cross after being herded wide to the right, but there was no accounting for Hutter approaching it warily, before judging that he could not cut it out in time. Finnish striker Sulo Griinari has no such misgivings, and the Talpons captain duly smashed a volley past a despairing
Dimitris Germanakos.
Germanakos' ire would be soothed somewhat as the Birds equalized at the first opportunity, and it would come through
Aw Keng Chuan, who had scored under similar circumstances against Singapore Red Dragons last week. That would warn the Talpons midfield not to yield too much space to him, but as they soon found out, the Birds had other weapons at their disposal. Twenty minutes in, Tadeusz Kalski found himself otherwise engaged with
Phua Ming Xin as Chitre prowled the edge of the box looking for the pass, and instead went direct with a lob over Seyfer for 2-1.
Seyfer could not afford to relax, as Aldo Angelo Carocci tried to dribble past
Hwang Teck Fu from the kick-off and was immediately stopped, which had
Paulino Trindade break wildly down the left. The low cross was long and got through to
Enrique Baena, who failed to control it at first asking for what would have been an obvious finish. The Spanish winger salvaged the situation nicely, however, as he pulled it back for Chitre, who did the job with a mighty right-footed hammer.
A two-goal lead was enough for
Tian Yonghang, it seemed, as the Grilled head coach was seen motioning for his guys to tone it down, and focus on ball retention. The half thus ended without additional drama, and a 40 year-old
Bhavya Panigrahi would return to the fray for
Atang Mangoye for the second one, also reclaiming the armband. There was not too much to do on his end, frankly, and
Phua Ming Xin would soon steal the show, as he sprung at Trindade's off-target glancing header from a corner, to add a fourth.
That was also it for Phua, as Tian instantly had the fourth official put up a substitution of
Mohsen El Khateeb for him, which was not well-received by the Grilled fans in attendance. Phua didn't seem surprised, though, and took the order in good grace. It didn't really affect Grilled's striking power in the ensuing minutes, as
Ibnou Balde came very close with his cleverly-crafted effort in the 53rd minute, only to miss high by a bit.
Talpons would make their changes soon afterwards, with a double swop of Jan Josephsen and Sorin Gheorghe off for Daniel Gąbka and Gédéon Agoli. That made nary an impact, however, and there would be scant action of note by the time
Ibnou Balde came off for Kalki, at the very end.
