Approximately Four
Parada Temper
The Birds breezed past III.7 opponents Atlethic Pi to reach the quarterfinals of the Sapphire Challenger Cup, though the Pulau Ubin club did halve the six-goal margin that they lost by, from the main cup five seasons back. Then again, that was a still-formidable Birds side boasting of a
Chan Ze Han in full flower, and a host of supporting stars who had just won three S-Leagues together. None of the starters would remain for this revisit, as opposed to Atlethic Pi, who had about half their team as survivors from that day.
This included new captain, Bulgarian Krasimir Velichkov, who however would also have the toughest assignment of the day bar none, in facing down his Grilled counterpart
Federico Parada. Parada was once again bursting with chutzpah, and a rambunctious approach that forced Swiss referee Gian Luigi Nocerino to book him in the 22nd minute, for too much touchy-feely. The Birds were happily one-nil up already by then, with
Phua Ming Xin scoring for the fourth consecutive game, with a sweet right-footed volley off
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan's setup.
Parada was not the only one to go for muscle over wiles, as
Orest Tokarz was more than eager to do it his accustomed way too. His shoving of Hendrik Hechtermans out of the way towards banging the second in past Phua Loong Boon could have been rejected by some referees, but Nocerino let it slide after brief consideration. Velichkov was prepared to protest, but
Aw Keng Chuan bearing down on goal straight from the restart would see him forget his complaint in a jiffy.
Grilled would rue their carelessness in front of goal, with Lee Liang Seng scoring from Atlethic Pi's first clear chance, thanks to Javier Echave popping it down from a corner in the 39th minute.
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan had spurned a superb Parada cross several minutes before that, with
Chia Kwang Tse also ripping a very-convertible one well over. Atlethic Pi could even have levelled as
Damian Hutter was sold short on a right-sided cross, but thankfully
Aw Keng Chuan got in Elvis Kim's way, and forced the former national youth player to put it wide.
Tian Yonghang was willing the first half to end by then, and he gave the side a right earful during the break, from their much-improved alertness forthwith. That their lead had been reduced to one perhaps played a role in that too, but the good news was that the Birds were winning the midfield handily.
Chad Thach had it hard against Lee Liang Seng at times, but his flashes of quality were enough to create a number of through passes past Lee - one of which was sprinted onto by
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan after 59 minutes, to devastating effect. 3-1!
Atlethic Pi remained very much in the mix, and while they routed most of their attacks to Shravan Vempalli on the right, Nikola Dermendzhiev had his moments on the opposite flank too. He would burst past Ferzan with sheer power in the 72nd minute, and from the mess than ensued on that side of Grilled's defence, Echave stuck a foot in and deflected it towards the near post.
Dimitris Germanakos was already moving away from it in anticipation, but managed to recover, and came up with an unorthodox save with his elbow.
It was finally back to the Birds as Atlethic Pi's players expended themselves early, and Chia came very close with a flat header that Phua Loong Boon only just tipped over. That was just a temporary escape even with the ensuing corner cleared, as Grilled built quickly from the back, and had
Joe Reece pull off the most delicate of touches under heavy pressure - one that was good enough for him to scoot past the goalkeeper, once he refound his footing.
That should have been enough for Grilled, and
Federico Parada in particular, but the captain could not resist sticking an arm out to block what might have been a critical forward pass by Chitiya Mbola. Parada regretted it immediately too, from the look on his face, but it had to be an automatic second yellow by Nocerino, which had Parada strolling over to
Lim An Keng offering the armband, even before the card came out.
