Legit Downpour
Aw Notice
The Birds braved monsoonal rain to outscore Seoul club Wychowankowie (L)Legii(L) at The Cooking Pot, with the spinoffs of Polish side (L)Legia(L) getting no reprive from a nightmare season in the Homegrown League II.3. With just three goals for and forty-nine against, head coach Dong-Hyun Choo has long written off the campaign, but his position appears secure with the board announcing their full backing after he had taken them up from the third division.
Legii's poor showing could be seen in a better light considering that they had promoted from Division Five to Division Two in just three seasons, and this also without being able to bring in any new blood. For today, midfield enforcer Sam-Il Ki was their main attraction, with 32 year-old lone forward Kilyoung Tae tasked to do what he could at the tip of a 5-4-1. The Birds unveiled an attacking trio of Marzuki, Chitre and Chia, with
Aw Keng Chuan and
Paulino Trindade the only first-team rotation players on show.
Well, it wasn't like they were too hung-up about results, from the regular showboating that the Birds got up to, perhaps mindful that the about 4600 loyalists that had turned up deserved some entertainment. Aw was probably the most serious of the lot as he directed his teammates from the centre, having seemingly lost his guaranteed spot in Grilled's midfield. He did his petition no harm with a nifty goal in the 25th minute, slinging it over In-Woo Koo from what seemed like a harmless area.
Legii were rattled by that, having looked fairly comfortable against what was a second-rate Birds unit, and would continue to wilt against a sustained Grilled barrage from wide.
Paulino Trindade found himself allowed to cross rather too easily with the defenders on his wing preoccupied with preventing him from going deep, and the sheer volume of deliveries would see
Chia Kwang Tse nod a second in, just four minutes after Aw's goal.
Gandhik Chitre hammered a
Mohd Marzuki Khairul pass terribly wide after being played onside by his fellow forward, and that was about it for the first half. The groundskeepers tried and largely failed to arrest the deterioration of the pitch during the break, which was perhaps fortunate for In-Woo Koo as
Chia Kwang Tse's blazing drive lost a bit of pace upon hitting the grass. Not to take anything away from the goalkeeper - it remained an incredible save!
There would be a change in the 60th minute as the largely-unbothered
Markus Pallas went off for
Radovan Jaška, handing the armband off to
Chia Kwang Tse in the process. This was about when Grilled cranked up the activity again, and they would win a corner in the 66th minute with Marzuki playing it behind off Gisu Song.
Toma Tamiya clipped it short, and
Paulino Trindade pounded it in off the far post from about eight yards.
It wouldn't be long before Toma got his name in lights too, as Finnish referee Roope Yli-Huhtala spotted an inadvertent handball by Ouyang Changhui in the penalty area. Toma sent it sailing past In-Woo Koo after a brief run-up, but the custodian could hardly be faulted as he then made some vital saves off Marzuki and Trindade in turn.
