Old New Gold
Au An Chemistry
It was a bad day in Jurong for Grilled Birds and
Raúl Himadas in particular, as newbies are newbies battered their way to an imposing 4-1 home win with nary any resistance from a tired-looking Birds XI. Official odds had a draw being likely at the newbies ground, but it turned out not to be much of a contest, as newbies followed up their midweek cup wing against richlyeng rangers to make it six in a row.
This 37th competitive match between the sides would also mark
Gandhik Chitre's hundredth start, for which he was kindly given a special mention by the home commentator. Polite applause followed from the stands - which were packed about two-thirds full - before exploding into loud cheers as 18 year-old Aw Da Hui led the newbies team out. The hosts were flush with cash after shifting Portuguese goalkeeper Estêvão Ferreira to four-time Uruguay league champs Muñeco Viviente V for a tidy S$23 million in the off-season, but they would reinvest but ten million on 35 year-old Italian custodian Romeo Gasparroni.
Then again, they
had thrashed the Birds 6-1 at the end of the previous season, which had head coach Kwok Wan Yau supremely confident in his pre-match press statement. A knee injury to midfielder Lam Kang Su would see Kwok move some personnel around, with Chen Meng Heng taking centre stage, and Zhong Kim Tse dropping to left wing.
Hwang Teck Fu would also be placed wide as he returned to league competition, as
Radomil Marcol made his much-anticipated reappearance after an unplanned layoff of nearly a month.
Alas, the Marcol curse would not resolve itself, although it was objectively hard to blame the luckless goalie for what would transpire next. Cracks appeared in the Birds' facade early on as they were outhustled by the home team, who soon began to push the Grilled midfield back despite the Birds' selfsame compression. Li Choon An was well in his element right from the start as he created in volume from deep, and after a cross that sailed just over Tan Chu Chao in the 18th minute, Aw Da Hui found Au Kong Su with a looping delivery that
Chia Kwang Tse was a step late to.
Radomil Marcol stood his ground then per standard practice as Himadas challenged Au, but failed, and the Spanish defender would arguably bear the bulk of the blame again ten minutes later, when Au slithered past on his outside to catch the inside of the post with a superlative drive. Grilled would take until the 35th minute for their first recorded shot on target, but Gasparroni punched
Aw Keng Chuan's effort well clear, and Li Choon An upped the score to 3-0 on the return. It could have been worse with Tan finding space two minutes later, only to rock the upright with Marcol flinging himself at his half-volley in vain.
There was not much that
Tian Yonghang could respond with, given the circumstances, and although he replaced a downcast Hwang with
Paulino Trindade after sixty minutes, it was not as if the Number Fifteen had done much wrong today. This did spark a brief Birds rally as they pumped it long on the throw-in, which led to a corner off Elijah Gardner by
Lim An Keng.
Aw Keng Chuan delivered it,
Raúl Himadas was thrown off his header, but
Mohd Marzuki Khairul was there to sweep the mishit ball home before Gasparroni could react.
That was but a flash in the pan ultimately as newbies retook the initiative near-instantly, with Zhong Kim Tse a whisker from restoring their three-goal lead on the very next possession, as he successfully thrashed it across an unguarded Birds goalmouth with Tan sliding in a fraction late at the back post.
Radomil Marcol would shine in the 72nd with a great one-handed reaction save off Au Kong Su, but he was powerless to prevent Li from also completing a brace, five minutes later.
