Four Hundred And Counting
Although he spent but a few minutes on the pitch, the 38 year-old
Chan Ze Han nevertheless dominated the news, given that it was his milestone 400th appearance for the club. It should have come far earlier had it not been his possibly career-ending injury sustained at Good Luck FC at the beginning of Season 85, but Chan preferred to count his blessings at being able to take part at all.
"It's a gift to even be in the squad at my age." Chan expressed. "Better players have been forced to retire long before this, and I hope only to contribute what I can to the club, while I can."
Chan remains ten starts behind
Moey Xin Seng in the all-time stakes, with current head coach
Tian Yonghang the only other man ahead of him, with 364 starts to Chan's 361. Tian would not be drawn into discussions on the matter, however, as he preferred to discuss his strikeforce instead. "All three of them found the net today, that's what I like to see."
It was curtains for the other two Grilled sides, as Farmer Bunnies fell to a strong Cantonat FC at Orchard's Eric Cantona Arena, also by a 1-3 scoreline. After heartrending near misses by
Ho Ah Kian in the first half,
Judah Cho would finally complete a counter to answer Petr Voroshilov's seventh minute header, only for English striker Alan Schell to thump home a free-kick and a penalty for the III.13 contestants.
Vitaliy Efendiev, who lasted the first half with minimal impact, readily diagnosed the Buns' shortcomings. "We defended well given the circumstances, but let's just say that limiting them to converting one out of ten attacks... isn't great when they are allowed to put together dozens of those. We got simply overrun."
Grilled International fared yet worse in a 1-5 walloping by H.I. III.12 favourites Olli Town, with the Suriname club showing the Buns how a principled counterattacking setup should be done.
Didi Reidenbach was just relieved that
Egidius van der Duin's groin pull was diagnosed to be mild after the fact, as the Swiss gaffer recognized that Olli Town were the better team by far.
Phua Li Kong, who tried fruitlessly to marshal the defensive effort, could only agree. "It was but a question of time, after we failed to break them down."
