Shark Attack
Red In The Water
Grilled Birds were not expected to encounter too much of a problem in the first round of the cup at least, and this was indeed the case against Serangoon IV.3 side Turbo Sharks. The management had previously kickstarted GJH Geylang and Marina Blue Dragons for about a season each, but neither club really caught on, and it is be a question of whether this will be third time lucky for them.
51 year-old Mexican head coach Juan de Dios Arguello refused to promise too much, having already sold star trainee goalie Drissa Ouango on, with it being the flamboyant Li Loong Chi keeping goal for them today. 19 year-old French leftback Jean-Thomas Chastang made for a very young, if unusually-mature captain, but most of the Sharks' hopes rested on local wingers Ho Nie Jing and Ryker Tran, who were out to feed Wu Sze Jun in a 5-4-1.
A single point man was of course a very obvious target for the Birds defender to mark, not that it mattered with almost all of the important action happening at the other end.
Brian Reddy's first full season had been characterized more for his creative and space-making abilities than any specific penchant for scoring, but the latter would very much be on display today; three minutes in, Reddy would have the first big chance of the game fall to him as Uthman Muneer let him inside, a mistake that he surely won't want to repeat as Reddy duly slid the go-ahead goal in.
No tension from the underdogs today, then, as the Birds continued going about their business with reduced stress, which only helped their preferred passing game.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul certainly didn't overthink his approach in the 16th minute before blasting it into the roof of the net, and Reddy couldn't be accused of not taking the match seriously, as he played on - and scored - after Vijay Das had gone down clutching his right foot three minutes later. A few Sharks players protested referee Ólafur Eiðsson not stopping play for him, but Eiðsson dismissed their criticism before okaying Gregg Leong's substitution on as a replacement for Das.
The Birds cooled off after that third goal, and both
Phua Ming Xin and
Federico Parada would have decent efforts stopped on the line by Li Loong Chi, who proved effective in an unorthodox manner. None of his non-standard moves would help him when
Gústav Thoroddsen broke through on the right side to bear down on goal in the 53rd, however, with the Icelandic forward simply on another level. Li tried to throw Thoroddsen off his stride with a jangling approach to close the distance, but Thoroddsen simply shortened a few steps, before dodging around the outside to convert. 4-0!
It was by now a race to score as many as possible, with Ho Nie Jing reduced to trying - mostly unsuccessfully - to keep with Parada on the left. And indeed, Parada would break through several times from the seventieth minute on, assisting
Joe Reece in the 70th with a particularly impressive bit of acceleration, before thrashing it home himself six minutes later. In between,
Brian Reddy would nearly get his hat-trick, but Li blocked it only for
Ha Qicai to profit for his first cup goal for Grilled.
That left
Phua Ming Xin as the odd one out amongst the Birds' main offensive players, but it was just not the Number Nine's day, as his undeniably considerable work output went begging. His best opportunity was probably in the 77th minute when several razor-sharp passes found him unattended five yards out, but his shifting the ball onto his stronger foot gave Tay Kian Chi enough time to interfere. Five minutes later, Phua would try from the edge of the box, but put it about a metre over, and he had no complaints when
Evandro La Face replaced him in the very last minute of regular time.
