Unlucky Thirteen
Painful Return
Grilled Birds would have their 26th fixture against Arrogancae after a break of eight seasons, which resulted in the latter's first victory in sixteen years, since a 0-5 wipe at Avengers Apocalypse in the S-League. This wasn't too far away either, as the Birds had to resort to some rather sketchy fouling, only to be blown away by the hosts' commanding midfield oversight.
Tanzanian former youth international John ShibilitiSanya would lead the Arrogancae team out, and having improved from fourth to third to second in their previous three II.2 campaigns, there was only one target left for them. Not only that, they had also just won the Singapore Sapphire Challenger Cup against Singapore Big Dogs, which only added to the sense that this Arrogancae side were on the verge of bigger things.
Grilled were no pushovers either, or so it seemed, after their opening-day flattening of The Sing Tigers - their twelfth competitive win in a row, and just one off their all-time record.
Tian Yonghang had pulled out just about all the stops in his selection today too, with both
Brian Reddy and
Federico Parada supporting the golden trio of
Gústav Thoroddsen,
Evandro La Face and
Orest Tokarz. This, then, had to be at least competitive with what Arrogancae had on offer?
Sadly, it was not so. It was soon clear that Arrogancae were going for a different tack than against newbies are newbies from last week, as they fanned out in a 3-5-2 featuring Oskari Matinlassi up top. The rapid short-passing game that they pulled out outdid the Birds at their own game, with some magnificent interplay between their front seven. Grilled had barely found their footing when René Isaksen exploded up the left in the 16th minute, and with several players rushing onto his low cross, Hugo Jesus Santos eventually met it at the far post to beat
Dimitris Germanakos with precise placement.
It was a wonder that Arrogancae did not add to their lead further in this half, beginning with Isaksen's own drive careening off the other post five minutes later, as they moved it from side-to-side just inside the penalty area. ShibilitiSanya was next as he exploited his deceptively-excellent pace having kept it under wraps previously, but fortunately
Ha Qicai was alert to the possibility, and managed to block off his main shooting angle.
Gústav Thoroddsen, sadly reduced for once, would pick up the first yellow card of many to come in the 32nd minute, as he petulantly held up Adolfo Meléndez's free-kick, in protest at what he felt was an unfair call on himself.
Dimitris Germanakos would then cement his status of the Birds' player of the game thus far, as he psyched Daniel Pălcuţ out on a penalty, given after an unavoidable handball by
Aw Keng Chuan. Germanakos would stand slightly to the left inviting Pălcuţ to shoot at the right post, only to get down quickly as the Romanian fullback tried some reverse psychology.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul replaced
Chia Kwang Tse for the second half as
Tian Yonghang retained hopes of a comeback, but those would soon be cruelly dashed, as Arrogancae found another couple of gears under the carpet. Grilled were still unable to resort to offence as their best form of defence, and the inevitable happened. Isaksen made up for his earlier finding of the woodwork as he skipped past
Lim An Keng and then Ha's despairing tackle in the 54th minute, and chipped it past a grounded Germanakos having feinted a pass to Matinlassi.
Grilled had not quite given up hope yet, and they were finally starting to put some moves together out wide... but not for long. For all of
Brian Reddy's creativity, Faas de Vogt had him locked down through the game, and it was Reddy who would be lucky to escape with a yellow in the 75th minute, for leaving his studs in the Dutchman's ankle. The free-kick was sent long and duly crossed in for Oskari Matinlassi to nod home Arrogancae's third, and while
Orest Tokarz got on the end of what was Grilled's best chance by far from the restart, he would disappointingly hit it straight at Alan Bennett, when either side would have done.
Even Tian had to admit that the game was up after that fluffed shot, and the match would start to get rather ugly, with the frustrated Birds players no longer holding much back;
Chad Thach would draw several angry opponents on him after he failed to pull out of a high knee in the 81st minute, that caught Adam Puławski in the face. It was only with difficulty that referee Christopher Schwarz kept the peace - with the help of a number of more level-headed representatives from both benches - but the crowd did not appreciate Thach managing to stay on, as Puławski had to be subbed off for Aare Eld, whilst bleeding from the forehead.
Well, the Arrogancae fans would have their pound of flesh two minutes after the long stoppage, as Adolfo Meléndez rounded Germanakos for the fourth, with Matinlassi having already done most of the hard work.
Orest Tokarz would be carded for trying to block Hugo Jesus Santos off in the build-up, and by the time
Chan Ze Han and
Phua Ming Xin came on in the final minute, the gallery was already singing as one.
