Gabriel Burns Out
A 41 year-old
Chan Ze Han drew loud cheers as he entered for
Chia Kwang Tse with the match very much decided, to make it 26 active seasons as a player with the Birds. Chan was very much adamant that the torch had long been passed, admittedly. "I'm just collecting my pension now."
With the Birds now very much looking forward to the next round against four-time S-League champions Villains F.C., Farmer Bunnies would advance too, even if it took them longer - and cost them a lot more. 37 year-old former American international
Gabriel Priebe sustained a near career-ending head injury on a brutally-contested header against Tan Kok Min, while
Lee Yau Tong got suspended after two unnecessary bookings.
Opponents Brighton UK would lose 19 year-old trainee defender Russel Chen to a jarred ankle early on, as the match went to penalties after Brighton failed to score on any of their many chances in regular time, with
Mauro Fau spuring the Buns' only big opportunity in the 88th minute. As in their Consolation Cup success two years ago, goalkeeper
Gilberto Sorondo came up tops with a great save from Bahrin Osman Abdul Majid despite the ball being hit straight to the bottom right corner, after Tung Wei Jia had missed Brighton's second kick.
"We just have to do this five more times!"
Ho Ah Kian, who rolled the winning shot past Norberto Brivitello, joked.
Before this, Grilled International had fought to a worthy 3-2 win over Belgian H.I. IV.46 entrants The Mythical Wolves, who raised some heartrates with Fonne Winkelmans's defiance in stoppage time. Thankfully, International had done enough by then, with their goals from
Leri Bezhanishvili,
Snæbjörn Sigfússon and then
Phua Li Kong, who did double duty on defence.