Egidius Crushes Ottnang
Head coach
Tian Yonghang was chuffed by his Birds getting the three points at the newbies ground. "This has always been a special fixture for us, and we never take our record in it for granted." he said. "I think we could have done better defending, but Ha and Himadas had a decent day all told. There were some great touches from
Brian Reddy there, not the least of which was for his goal!"
The greatest shock of the opening round would be Claseek's 5-0 thrashing of last season's runners-up Singapore Red Dragons, which had veteran midfielder Chan Kong Seng bully his way to a hat-trick. Queenstown MZKs played out a 4-4 draw with Joker 9 which Adem Boğ saved in stoppage time for the hosts, as Ambush F.C. put War Nation FC away 2-0, helped by a 34th minute penalty for Woo Wei Yi.
Tian would not be intimidated by Claseek's performance, despite having to face them next Sunday. "We have home advantage, and plenty of fine players ourselves. I'm not seeing why we have to be especially concerned.
Wins were had for the other Grilled clubs too, with Farmer Bunnies getting their Division Three campaign off to a victorious start against FC Jurong Rovers... although it took a literally last-minute spot kick by
Koushan Khatibi, after some pushing in the box. Teddy Ellerbæk had no chance against the kick, rifled as it was into the top right corner.
There was a cost as
Ong Li Jing and
Dušan Václavík had to go off after robust play from Jurong, as Mangrove Pittas shot off the blocks with a 5-0 wipeout of Geylang Dolphins. kaloons defeated Really McCoys 3-0 as they exploited their pace to its fullest extent, while newcomers Jerza Singapore rose to second play with Tan Jia Kim leading them to a 5-2 result over Singapore rovers 2.
Grilled International flattened one of their main rivals for their title, as they whipped Austrian club FC Inter Ottnang 5-1 at Burung.
Leri Bezhanishvili might have opened after an early scare from
Phua Li Kong's foul, but Dutch forward
Egidius van der Duin soon took over with a wonderful hat-trick that included some incredible precognition to intercept a pass for the second.
Remond Bergervoet added a fifth in the 79th, before Johannes Oppitz grabbed a consolation from an excellent free-kick.
Israel's hope and love however matched International's scoreline against Snipp BK, with Grandes de Extremadura and Biri Heart playing out a three-all draw. Athletico Chiapas were the other winners of the round, as they overturned hosts Trgystar with defender Víctor Arnaldo bagging twice in as many minutes.