A Spring In Their Step
Velankar Valiant
Two-time Challenger cupwinners Sentoza Springboks stretched their competitive winning streak to eleven games, in dunking on a Birds side that were left rueing a host of missed chances. Not that this should take anything away from the Sentosa giants, who entirely deserved to go through on the day.
Farmer Bunnies could of course attest to Springboks' dominance in II.3, with Colombian head coach Francisco Javier Riascos blending on-field tactical brilliance with clever dealing in the transfer market. His latest big buy was Sri Lankan winger Chiranjeev Muniyarayar for over S$8.2 million, with the Number Seven manning left wing today. There would be no place for last season's purchases Iván Colunga and Ravindr Khapangi, however, not with the likes of Chhaya Ing and Choong Yeng Aik maintaining fine form.
Given this,
Tian Yonghang gambled on deploying
Dimitris Germanakos despite the Greek custodian having to play with a heavy-duty compression shirt under his jersey, not that it would likely have made much of a difference had
Dahan Bok been picked instead. Riascos would have Eskild Rysgaard quite blatantly man-marking
Mohd Marzuki Khairul from the get-go, which looked to be a bit of a toss-up as strategies went. On hindsight, it could have been quite different had
Brian Reddy's power drive in the 16th minute gone in, but it didn't, and the quick restart had Springboks open instead with Ukrainian forward Mark Borovyk fastest onto the low bounce.
Grilled remained well in the game despite falling behind, as their narrow formation allowed them to win midfield more often than not. Clear openings were harder to come by, however, and their defensive frailties became painfully evident when no-one was in a position to cut out Muniyarayar's direct low cross 37 minutes in, leaving Thomas Velankar a simple tap-in at the far post. A minute later, the Birds' impatience at forcing a reply left former Faroese U-20 midfielder Niels Meitil an open road through, and he drew
Dimitris Germanakos out before catching him open on the inside.
Germanakos looked pained at conceding a third time, and the sympathetic stadium commentator wondered aloud as to whether he might have reached that, had he not been hampered by his ribcage problem. There would be a bit of a renaissance for the Birds here, and following some calculated short passing,
Aw Keng Chuan would slip inside to thread it past Leo Savolainen for 1-3.
Chad Thach would flub a great chance in the next minute after some incredible dribbling from
Brian Reddy, sadly, and Springboks punished the miss with goals by Eskild Rysgaard and Chhaya Ing, before Belgian referee Bilal Zemmama declared half-time.
The enormity of making up four goals only really seemed to sink in during the break, and Sentoza Springboks emerged from the tunnel well-briefed on how to preserve it. The pace of the match slowed dramatically, if not enough to keep Grilled Birds from creating a few scattered chances, chief amongst them
Lim An Keng's fall in the 50th minute that won a free-kick just two yards outside the box.
Raúl Himadas heaved it over the wall, but Savolainen clawed it over.
The Finnish Number One would go off twenty minutes later apparently as a precaution after hobbling from leaping for
Chad Thach's blast from eight yards, not that there was much for Bulgarian veteran Boyko Stoyanov to handle, after coming on. Stoyanov would concede to
Hwang Teck Fu's excellent drive with four minutes remaining, but
Ha Qicai couldn't build on that as Grilled tried to press the momentum, and Velankar notched a sixth in added time.
