Red Reprisal
Veerma Venom
A near full house at downtown Dracarys Arena witnessed Singapore Red Dragons taking a huge step towards an S-League return, as they closed out a 4-3 win against Grilled Birds to avenge their 1-3 loss earlier in the season. Still, it was an encouraging showing from the Birds, who were roundly feted by their travelling fans for running the Dragons close.
The hosts' Kazakh gaffer Berik Dosman would tailor his approach to the Birds, as he put out a 4-5-1 instead of the 3-5-2 that had been roundly beaten by Grilled at The Cooking Pot. South African newcomer Sipho Ramasike would start in central defence along with Seah Yeng Hock, while Parmeet Naik was shoved up into midfield. This left no room for Angloan forward Elias Almeida Magalhães, who had to watch Robert Veerma helm the attack from the bench.
Veerma's pick would prove more than justified, as was quickly evidenced. Grilled Birds would attempt to play to cool from the kick-off, but had not counted on the Dragons' enthusiasm.
Chia Kwang Tse thought that he had a lot more time on the ball than he actually had, and got it nipped away by Csaba Báthory-Bozó in the second minute. An instant forward pass had Veerma spring the Birds' offside trap, and he would go on to take it around
Dimitris Germanakos for a superb goal.
That had
Tian Yonghang up in arms on the touchline, as Grilled responded with a heightened sense of urgency - which did them credit. They were always more convincing when trying to dictate play, and after some biding of time in midfield around the 14th minute,
Aw Keng Chuan pumped it into the Dragons' penalty area once he judged that enough of his teammates had positioned themselves within.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul came out tops, as he fended the taller Seah Yeng Hock off expertly, before rising to brush the ball past Tsjitse Westerlaan off the top of his head.
The rest of the half would turn out to be a slugfest, with Veerma arguably the star as he scored again right after Marzuki's equalizer - impressively holding off both
Ha Qicai and then
Hong Kang Leong before shooting. Roman Eloidze was next to exploit the Birds' static defence, only for the Dragons to in turn be lax against
Brian Reddy's sudden pull forward on the right wing. Chris Averett couldn't make his mind up as to which side to herd Reddy towards, and the impulsive Number Seven steered it to the inside, before squaring it for
Hwang Teck Fu's daisycutter.
This made it 3-2, and it could not be said that Grilled Birds didn't create further opportunities to get back on level terms, as they traded attacks with the Dragons - and arguably got the better of those.
Chia Kwang Tse came within inches in the 33rd minute with his header powered towards the bottom corner, and two minutes later,
Brian Reddy would dispossess Ramasike only a few feet from goal. The Dragons had the numbers to clog the area up, unfortunately, and the shot was smothered.
Hong Kang Leong's liability against pace would then be quite obviously exploited four minutes after the break, as he was beaten by Eloidze over ten metres, from a strolling start. Admittedly, Germanakos could have done better with the finish, but fingers will unavoidably be pointed at Hong for letting his man past him that easily.
Once more faced with a two-goal deficit, it was all Grilled Birds could do to try and create from midfield, and they would be admitted helped by the Dragons' more-passive approach after hitting that threshold. Their four-man backline would be largely solid, though, and progress would be slow until
Gandhik Chitre worked his way past Seah in the 74th minute, only to be blocked off by Ramasike. Three minutes later, Chia had an open shot from about ten yards following
Lim An Keng's clever probing dribble, but Tsjitse Westerlaan flaunted his reflexes with a great save.
Tian's usual impact sub would not have an effect, as Paulino Trinidade fared no better than
Chad Thach against the far more experienced Peh Da Kong on the left.
Damian Hutter and
Bilal Mohammad Harun did shake things up to an extent as they came on right before stoppage time, and while
Mohd Marzuki Khairul made it a point to rush to retrieve the ball after his chipped goal, there simply wasn't enough time for another go.
