Rule Of Four
Bacha Didn't Notice
Former New Zealand U-20 forward Maher El Bacha wrested a point for Arcturules in stoppage time, after Grilled Birds appeared to have finally put the visitors away following three equalizers. Sometimes ill-tempered, other times frustrating, but never boring, this fourteenth meeting between the sides was one for the neutrals.
That it turned out this way was perhaps not entirely out of nowhere, given the sneak preview offered in the third round of the Singapore Cup about a month ago. Then, young Finnish player-coach Jouko Hyvärinen had set Arcturules up in a 5-5-0, only bringing Choy Chee Da as a lone forward in the second half. Regardless, they managed to hold the Birds to 3-3 at full time, and it was only during extra time that
Lim An Keng and
Chia Kwang Tse scored to claim victory.
The loss might have influenced Hyvärinen into setting his team up in a more-offensive 3-5-2 today, and from how Ognen Najdoski scrambled home Klaus Dobschütz's barely-parried header from a corner in the fourth minute, there were few indications that it was an incorrect choice. Hyvärinen would walk the talk too by breaking up more than his fair share of Grilled attacks as defensive mid, but there was no stopping
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's exhilarating dash through after 18 minutes, which segued into a grounder thumped past Vito van Weelie.
Play would be stopped in the 25th minute for Ching Lee Chee to get his right knee looked at, after which he got replaced by Tay Chao Hao after the club doctor judged it too risky for Ching to continue. Arcturules attacked straight from the drop ball, and
Dimitris Germanakos emerged as a Grilled hero with an initial block from Alf Stighult, before bouncing back to his feet and tipping Hyvärinen's follow-up behind for a corner.
Lim An Keng then sprayed an ambitious fifteen-yard header closer than it had any right to be in the 36th minute, to close off notable attempts for the first half.
Arcturules started the second half as strongly as they had the previous one, as their tack of pressing hard before the Birds got settled in, worked brilliantly again.
Aw Keng Chuan would be left red-faced as an absent-minded pass allowed Tay Chao Hao to slip inside for 2-1, and again Marzuki was there to level it back up with a dazzling dribble in the 55th minute. The visitors were hit hard again as Swedish veteran Alf Stighult came the worst off in a clash of legs with Marzuki, and had to be substituted by Choy Chee Da.
It really felt like groundhog day as Arcturules hoofed the drop ball deep down Grilled's right flank - which the Birds really should have expected - and Maher El Bacha would profit from Albanian national winger Gjelbërim Foniqi embarassing
Paulino Trindade with his fancy footwork. It was seriously looking down for the Birds about now, especially with
Lim An Keng impressively outleaping former national youth teammate Genki Nagano on a 70th minute corner, only to thump his header inches wide again.
The Birds had a secret weapon up their sleeve, though, and his name was
Brian Reddy. Reddy might not have found much joy against the experienced Ognen Najdoski before this, but if there's one skill the former Birds academy graduate has picked up with age, it would be the exploiting of vulnerabilities. Sensing Najdoski slowing, Reddy would pick his moment to take the North Macedonian on, and not once but twice; this yielded timely assists for
Chia Kwang Tse and then
Lim An Keng, at which the delirious home support must have believed the comeback complete.
Arcturules were definitely affected, from the usually-calm Nabeel Jamal's wild tackle on
Chad Thach that brought him a yellow, but as it happened, the visitors had something in reserve too.
Tian Yonghang did his usual tactic of making late subs to while away the seconds, with both
Damian Hutter and
Bilal Mohammad Harun knowing full well what they were doing - but all was for naught as El Bacha swooped past a complacent Grilled backline, and made it 4-4 two minutes into added time.
