Guerillas Sustain
El Omda El Presto
There would be a full house at Hab Sukan Singapura with Ambush F.C. fighting for their Division Two survival, and they would pull through courtesy of a second-half brace from former national youth midfielder Mahmoud El Omda. There would be a little something in it for Grilled Birds too, as
Raúl Himadas collected his league Golden Boot after converting a penalty.
With survival ensured,
Tian Yonghang had the luxury of rewarding or blooding his reserves if so desired, but the Birds boss kept largely to his usual starting XI - possibly out of a sense of fairness. The lone exception would be his awarding 18 year-old
Kendell El Khateeb his first competitive start at left wing, although even this might have legitimate tactical backing from how
Darko Andrović and
Paulino Trindade had been reported to be struggling in training.
Ambush F.C. were definitely the more concerned about getting off the mark, and to this end they had recent signing Han Rong Yeng as their main weapon, driving their attack from wide left. Han had been nothing less than impressive in the four games he had participated in since his transfer from Argentina's Pinta Foot, with his team winning three and drawing one of them. Their other big transfer - defender Lim Cheng Hock will however need to wait a little longer for his maiden league appearance, with his 23rd birthday just passed yesterday.
Grilled would be the ones chasing the ball for once at the Hab Sukan with the hosts clearly giving this everything they had left, with captain Jimmy Pham crashing through the Birds defence in just the second minute, only to drag his finish wide with
Radomil Marcol looking less than assured. They would continue imposing a feverish tempo on the Birds, and after Cai Loong Choon was booked for a full-on hit on
Gandhik Chitre, an unguarded Liew Qiang Ze would be presented with a right-sided cross following consistent output by Mahmoud El Omda in the 20th minute; sadly for the home faithful, Liew chipped it unconvincingly after checking Wil Tai out, skewing the shot badly.
The Birds had barely threatened David Stacey's goal up to now, so it came as something of a shock when young Portuguese referee Agostinho Braz pointed straight to the penalty spot, after witnessing Kee Kok Hui running into
Lim An Keng from behind, right as the Birds forward crossed over into the box. Contact appeared minimal, but Braz had no doubt, and
Raúl Himadas patiently waited for Stacey to lean over to his right before hooking the ball the other way.
That was the Spanish defender's twelfth league goal of a highly successful season, but he would wave his teammates' attentions away, preferring to direct their focus back to the game. Grilled would see out the remainder of the half without conceding, but it was clear that Ambush F.C. were able to create chances at a brisk rate. The start of the second half saw
Ha Qicai withdrawn for an out-of-favour
Aw Keng Chuan, with
Genki Nagano emerging with the captain's armband.
It was soon clear that Aw was much less comfortable as the last man than as a defensive enforcer, as he continually left too much space for the opposition strikers, likely from force of habit of expecting further coverage behind him. This tendency would soon be seized upon by the Ambush players, and Mahmoud El Omda equalized in the 55th minute after Liew had gotten past Aw.
The home fans were in full voice now, and there would be a real sparkle about the game about now, with Grilled assembling perhaps their best single attacking move of the match from the restart.
Brian Reddy glided past Pham as he rolled back the years, only to watch his right-footed slice float harmlessly across the empty goalmouth, with Stacey stranded. Worse, the ball was then cleared straight to Tai, and after he expertly held on to it against Himadas, Mahmoud El Omda arrived to crash his grounder home, for his second goal in three minutes.
Even this failed to rouse Grilled much, perhaps partly due to their players' long season, but probably mostly due to it frankly not mattering anyway. Ambush F.C. were taking no chances with their second division status at stake, in contrast, and Wil Tai would confirm their qualification match with a clever fakeout to get through, in the 72nd minute.
