Galaxy Too Big
Lim Out Lim In
Grilled's Sapphire Challenger Cup ambitions would end in the semifinals at the hands of Ang Mo Kio's Galactic Eagles CF, who took this first-ever meeting between the clubs, 3-1. It was not that the Birds did not have the production line to serve up the necessary goals, but merely that the Eagles managed the transition from defence to attack far better, on the day.
An all-local setup with former national stars in about every position, the Eagles were hardly a soft touch in midfield with Chua Keong Hui and Quek Kim Chuan strung across the middle, even if captain Quek has arguably been getting a bit long in the tooth. Central defender Desmond Reddy and goalkeeper Marc Sullivan had received youth caps too, and this balanced 4-5-1 had been finely tuned to get the ball to Number Nine Tong Hock Kok up top for the final conversion.
On Grilled's end, the most-anticipated news had
Mohd Marzuki Khairul moved back into midfield for
Phua Ming Xin to resume scoring duties, although with both recent hat-trick men Marzuki and
Aw Keng Chuan still starting, this could not be said to be a team short on gunpowder.
Lim An Keng and
Chia Kwang Tse started alongside Marzuki with
Chad Thach having to stay on the bench, with
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan soon noted to have been tasked to help shore up the middle whenever his central midfielders pushed up, rather than play his usual incursive style.
That didn't work half badly, and there was a moment when it seemed that Marzuki's hot streak would be continuing, when he received Chia's meaningfully-hit forward pass with back to goal, turned Reddy without a thought... before getting the ball swept out from beneath him by Marc Sullivan. Chia was appealing for the penalty even before he reached the grass, but Portuguese referee Irineu Carneiro Costa waved play on, and the Eagles obliged. A brilliant long pass hugging the right touchline was helped on by Kee Ping Eng, and Aaron Lau knew where he had to be, to tap the pending cross home.
This was a picture-perfect construction that left
Dimitris Germanakos out in the cold, and Grilled would find themselves in a hole after eleven minutes already. They did retain enough of possession to not be unduly perturbed, and it was all square ten minutes on, when acting captain
Federico Parada switched into the middle, and dribbled two opponents to stroke it past Sullivan. Real chances remained few and far between for the Birds, unfortunately, and
Joe Reece came by far the closest when he banged it back off the crossbar in the 37th minute, before going for a delicated lob aimed at
Orest Tokarz across goal, only to have the Polish striker boxed out by multiple, now-prepared defenders.
The Birds' plans would need to be rethought anyhow, as
Lim An Keng's left ankle gave out three minutes before half-time, and it had to be bad from how he could only kick it out to touch mid-run, before going down clutching his foot. This was at least an area where Grilled had no lack of worthy substitutes, and after some consideration,
Tian Yonghang signalled for
Hwang Teck Fu to take his place, to the visible disappointment of
Chad Thach.
Hwang's raw energy did give Chua some issues early in the second half, which however didn't last too long before the Eagles adapted. Grilled were at a slight loss of ideas by this point, and despite retaining most of the ball, much of their time was spent relaying it backwards, under the Eagles' constant if understated pressure.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul tried to force a dribble under heavy guard in the 58th minute, only to regret it as he got tackled just inside his own half, leading to Kee Ping Eng again putting his team in the lead.
Grilled were getting a little flustered now, with time ticking by and no sign of their opponents cracking under pressure, and it would take only too much roving about, before a half-chance presented itself for
Phua Ming Xin. Perhaps over-aware of the burden on his young shoulders, Phua did well to buy himself a yard of space by pushing the ball behind him to Soo Da Keng's outside, but the curled finish couldn't come down in time. Worse, Sean Lim ran perfectly onto Tong's diverted effort three minutes later, and the hole was now a canyon for the Birds.
Hwang did have his moment on the return from that third goal, as Grilled strung a series of confident passes together to feed his dash through the centre, but Sullivan proved his value then by anticipating the entire move. The supporters of Galactic Eagles CF knew they had it then, as they serenaded Love Street Stadium for the final fifteen minutes or thereabout.
