Dragon Over Elefantens
A 38 year-old
Chan Ze Han, who witnessed
Gústav Thoroddsen's hat-trick feat from the VIP boxes, proclaimed him a worthy successor. "This might be slightly unfair to
Joe Reece, but Thoroddsen simply has more tools at the moment. Compare him with me at my best, maybe even legends such as Mohd Safri and Tian at their best... he can't be far away."
Tian backed up the analysis, while expressing his hope that none of his players would rest on their laurels. "It's an important win, but also very early days. One careless mess-up, and it will be for naught."
Indeed, the victory was only sufficient to put Grilled Birds in fourth place after the first round of matches, with tpyers shooting to the top thanks to a 5-0 sweep of a disspirited Mayuyu AKB48, that had Kwok Ho Shi join Thoroddsen on three goals. Controlar and Sporting Reifeles notched 3-0 results against the Chasers and ggttbtbyny respectively, as the remaining fixtures offered little enough drama too.
Farmer Bunnies' title defence got off to a difficult start as they were held 1-1 by Really McCoys, who opened from Əhməd Babayev in the sixth minute after Patrizio Balestra's strike was barely saved by
Gilberto Sorondo. It was all
Ho Ah Kian could do to level in the 63rd minute following numerous approaches by
Ong Li Jing, to secure a point.
This left the Buns in fifth spot in III.9, with newcomers SK28 crushing amateur side Sengkang Town FC 5-0, to take an early lead in the table standings. Brighton UK are right behind them as they saw off FC Phondle 2-0 helped by an early disputed penalty converted by Ferdinand Willenegger, while FC Jurong Rovers had to wait until the 79th minute before Arthur Burns gave them the 3-2 win over Mangrove Pittas.
Grilled International topped V.56 to little reaction from their home fans, who knew well that the 7-0 crushing of Elefanten der Wüste was just par for the course - even if they had to enjoy another
Chua Jun Long masterclass... and hat-trick. In the other match of any real consequence, AC Rabissale gained an advantage over titleholders Amelinho Kickers with a shock 2-0 away win, as they blitzed the Kickers in the first ten minutes.
Other than that, Nice AS got a good home win versus Ponyhof, as French midfielder Virgile Malric enjoyed himself in scoring both goals there. Baboon Show St. Pauli settled for a goalless draw with SFK Ajaks in contrast, with Jochen Urschitz's theatrical flop to the ground in the 80th minute - which turned out to be for good reason - perhaps the biggest highlight of the game.
