Going To Xtremes
Brian Being Nice
Semi-pro club Xtreme Team F.C. 2 would promote to Division Four last week despite finishing bottom of their league just two seasons ago, to earn only their second berth in the Singapore Cup. It would unfortunately end badly at the hands of Grilled Birds, who crushed them 8-1 while brooking no resistance. Winger
Brian Reddy would however ensure that they did not wind up empty-handed, as he generously contributed an own goal.
Xtreme would be led out by veteran forward Tahir Jameel Azmi, probably still their best player at 33 years of age. Bearded creative midfielder Zheng Puay De would back him up in what was often their top combination, though in the end, their 4-4-2 would prove entirely ineffective against a hungry Birds lineup.
Chad Thach took but six minutes to stick the first goal past Mohd Izzaq Marjan, as he ghosted past university student Wong Jie Lee, before putting it in at the left post.
The home fans' wavering belief would be dealt consecutive blows next, as
Hwang Teck Fu and
Gandhik Chitre upped the score to three-nil by the 16th minute, from direct assaults a minute apart. They would receive some recompense for their attendance at least, after an all-or-nothing gamble from kick-off had half their team rush Grilled's box.
Brian Reddy swung blindly to try and clear the ball before Mohd Yahya Saif encroached on it, only for it to catch the sole of his boot, and roll past an unprepared
Dimitris Germanakos.
Reddy could at least afford to laugh that off from how the match was going, and by half-time, not many would regard that mistake as significant. It would be five for the Birds by then, with
Chia Kwang Tse bagging in the 29th minute after Geetarajan Shenoy's slip left Reddy to run free, and
Lim An Keng would then flaunt his sharp finishing on
Gandhik Chitre's abrupt reverse pass, five minutes on.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul would replace
Paulino Trindade on the left flank for the second half, with
Tian Yonghang likely weighing Khairul's suitability for the wing with this change. He would take his time to have an impact, as the hosts defended manfully;
Lim An Keng drew some missed breaths with a 58th minute long shot that flashed inches wide of the right post, and
Raúl Himadas then passed up a scoring debut as his on-target free-kick was denied by Marjan's best save of the day.
Chitre was being served a literal buffet as Grilled's point man, and it was perhaps underwhelming that he did not manage a hat-trick, after swinging a neat curler past Marjan in the 71st minute. Xtreme would hurt the Birds in other ways, as Tahir Jameel Azmi stuck out a foot towards reaching a rare ball over the top... only to meet an otherwise-occupied
Dimitris Germanakos right between his legs. Portuguese referee Bernardino Real winced perceptibly upon witnessing the accident, and gave the apologetic Azmi a yellow card as Germanakos limped painfully off.
This gave
Cameron Law an unlikely appearance, and Grilled Birds would vent their indignity with a quickfire one-two from Marzuki and then Lim, bringing the scoreline up to 8-1. The match ended thus, despite a hefty four minutes of added time from Real tacked on at the finish.