Double Dragon
Into The Semis
Grilled Birds made it back to the semifinals of the Sapphire Challenger Cup after a two-year absence, by besting league toppers Singapore Red Dragons once more, this time at BuddyBoys' Love Street Stadium. Unlike the 3-1 win some weeks back, conditions were horrible due to extended rainfall over the past night, but young Polish referee Bartłomiej Machalski okayed the fixture after a short inspection. The Birds would rotate their central players about, while Antti-Jussi Rautakallio made it into attack for the Dragons, with Elias Almeida Magalhães left on the bench.
Kazakh gaffer Berik Dosman would also make accommodations for a narrow back three today, having learnt a lesson from that last game, but the impact was perhaps lesser than he had hoped. Grilled adapted to the heavy pitch with lofted passes and fewer dribbles, leading into
Chad Thach breaking the mould with a pull forward from the left that had David Walsh mired in the bog. Still, Thach didn't seem to have the angle to shoot, but he again defied expectations with a cracker hard past Tsjitse Westerlaan.
The Birds support didn't mind this rather gauche approach from Thach at all with their club now ahead, and the Birds would carry on unashamed and with great gusto. Their rough-and-ready play proved more practical than the Dragons' attempted adherence to normal football principles, which saw
Gandhik Chitre free on goal twice, and scoring one in the 19th minute. Six minutes later,
Aw Keng Chuan lifted a nice cross into the Dragons penalty area after it got played long back to him, and
Brian Reddy found himself in the rare position of contesting a header on goal - and acquitted himself perfectly against Chris Averett's best efforts. Three-nil!
Not a few Dragons fans were seen up and leaving at this development, ironically right as their team started playing some of their best football of the day. Brazilian captain Badico Gaudério dipped deeply into his bag of tricks to conjure up a free-kick, which might well have been a penalty had
Lim An Keng been a fraction later with his challenge. Averett sized his options up and fooled the Birds defence with an exaggerated run-up, but Dmitriy Ryaboshapko couldn't get cleanly on Roman Eloidze's quick take after Averett's stepover.
That did grant the Dragons some renewed hope, if not too much before the game fell back into its usual pattern, with Grilled sloshing about with gusto to relative success.
Tian Yonghang saw no reason to modify a winning formula for the second half, and he would be vindicated as
Chia Kwang Tse found a fourth goal, 55 minutes in. There was an element of luck as Reddy hit it hard against Myles MacPatrick's extended leg only to have it pop up for Chia with Averett gone to air too soon, but he was only too happy to take it.
Singapore Red Dragons finally snapped back after that, with MacPatrick advancing at pace after Reddy had overcommitted, and Estonian forward Robert Veerma timed his move against
Aw Keng Chuan wonderfully to clip it across
Dimitris Germanakos, and off the inside of his far post. A breathless exchange soon followed in which
Ha Qicai forced a header home from a corner only for Seah Yeng Hock to burn him at the other end within the minute, which made it 5-2 for the Birds with an hour gone.
Despite their goals, the Dragons didn't really look like overhauling the Birds at this point, and were spared conceding further largely by the skill of goalkeeper Tsjitse Westerlaan. He would get his fingertips on
Hwang Teck Fu's powerful drive from eight yards immediately after Seah's goal, and then tip Chitre's rising volley onto the bar some six minutes on. Chia would be booked for overzealous manhandling of Dmitriy Ryaboshapko in between, and he was about to protest before thinking better of it.
Chia would eventually be substituted out right before regular time ended, with Machalski then indicating two minutes for the Dragons to complete any final pushes they had left in store. They did make a fine go of it, with Robert Veerma exhibiting incredible anticipation to foresee
Chad Thach's attempted pass back to
Ha Qicai, but the poach that resulted left his side yet two goals off Grilled's total.
