Going Dutch
Parada Letdown
It was not the most representative of team efforts for Grilled Birds against a wary tpyers, but their individual talent was sufficient to raise them to a welcome six-goal home triumph. Their visitors were perhaps unfortunate not to have at least recorded a consolation, what with them facing ten men for most of the time, which brought young head coach Yeo Kian Kiong much criticism from the tpyers support in the fallout.
Straight defeats to Phantasm Hotspurs and Shadow Chaser(R) SC had heaped the pressure on Yeo already, who would rely on captain Kwok Ho Shi to drive his team forward, from their deep-sitting 5-3-2. While this was always not going to be an easy task with
Tian Yonghang having the luxury of picking and choosing in midfield - with Lim, Chia and Hwang getting the call today - the first true chance would belong to tpyers, who had Kwok slide the ball over to Ng Han How in the twelfth minute. Ng's lob was weighed to near-perfection as it arced gracefully over a despairing
Dimitris Germanakos, only to clip the crossbar at the last instant.
Aw Keng Chuan would strain his right foot in rushing to clear, and it would be five more minutes before his teammates managed to convince Turkish referee Onur Raşit Sunar to enforce a stoppage, for Aw to have his ankle looked at. Ian Chuang's magic spray would fix that in a jiffy, but the Birds were hardly dominating at this point.
Ha Qicai might have given them the lead in resounding fashion 29 minutes in via a confident volley from the edge of the tpyers box, but the Holland club were choosing their counters well, and it would have been 1-1 had Cheah Rong Chin been calmer with his following finish.
The visitors' vigour would begin to wane after a turbocharged first half-hour, as not entirely unexpected, which coincided with a purple patch for Grilled; within the space of two minutes,
Federico Parada and then
Gústav Thoroddsen would put two more in the net, with Thoroddsen's majestic header from
Brian Reddy's contested delivery only reinforcing his undisputed status as the league's hottest scorer. It was less ideal for Parada, who then crudely brought Ben Ishikawa down from behind, a clear straight red offence. Ishikawa would not be able to continue, and was replaced by Low Heng Rong.
It was perhaps good that half-time arrived when it did, from how the game was devolving into a barely-disguised brawl in part, with
Brian Reddy next to be booked for then shoving Low in trying to reach
Orest Tokarz's short cross. Tian had his players cooled down and refocused when play resumed, and this more-cerebral mentality fitted his team well;
Phua Ming Xin had always thrived when given a little more time to think, and so it was that he managed to play it around the defence in the 57th minute, to open space for a neat finish - which made it 4-0 Birds.
Brian Reddy's inventiveness on the right was more than making up for the lack of a left wing, and Cheah Rong Chin would be tormented once too many, before all but giving up the ghost and allowing it to be squared to Tokarz for an easy tap-in after 70 minutes. Kwok Ho Shi had probably tpyers' best shot at restoring some honour in the 82nd, after
Damian Hutter had come on for
Aw Keng Chuan, but the crossbar would prove an implacable enemy today, as it again rejected a fine effort from Grilled's guests.
To heap insult on that, the referee than gave the Birds more than a little benefit of the doubt when Tokarz lashed the ball blindly off a defender's arm in the 86th minute, as he awarded the penalty despite said hand being pulled into the body. Phua was not about to turn down the opportunity, being next in line after Aw for set pieces, and he waited for Kok Yi Ping to make his move to the right, before slotting it in at the other end. There was then some concern when Low Heng Rong cradled his head after a mid-air clash with Thoroddsen, but the veteran substitute would recover quickly.
