Preeminent Authority
Three Queens Down
There will likely be no title challenge from the Birds for the season, as they were tripped up by a Queenstown MZKs side that were raring to exploit the vulnerabilities that Singapore Big Dogs had revealed in midweek. Grilled were maybe a little unfortunate in how the weather had conspired together with the hosts to produce a slugfest in the opening minutes, and by the time the Birds got their act together, they were three goals to the negative.
Queenstown MZKs had sounded fair warning with their laudable away limiting of FC Barca Singapore to a mere 2-1 victory last week, that said, coming right after their impressive 2-0 win over a very defensive Batok Earthquakes. These results might just have saved under-fire Italian head coach Diego Maestri's job, with his head very much on the line as he started the season with five defeats in the first six league rounds.
Maestri's hands were tied on the personnel end after the S$11.6 million splurge on countryman Romano Santirocchi that had boosted the club to promotion, with the goalkeeper sharing much of the criticism that had gone Maestri's way. He would however preserve his starting role with understudy London Ng not considered a serious full-time replacement, but the club in any case had sufficient talent elsewhere to be accused of underperformance.
Adem Boğ had for one looked very good against Grilled in the reverse fixture, and with Ha Qicai's departure,
Aw Keng Chuan would be an unfamiliar sight beside
Raúl Himadas at the back.
Darko Andrović and
Brian Reddy would also be omitted with
Tian Yonghang entirely intent on the squad transition, which had
Hisham Zubari and
Phillip Nagata as wide midfielders. This left relative newcomer
Genki Nagano to captain the team from midfield, and
Hwang Teck Fu apparently Grilled's new permanent central striker.
All those changes at once must have spelt trouble for the Birds, and they indeed appeared unsure of themselves once the match got going - not helped by the continued torrential rainfall. The hosts were a very well-oiled machine in contrast, and one that was more than willing to get stuck in when required. Czech midfielder Tomáš Aron was clearly not pulling any punches when confronted by Aw some yards outside the box in the 14th minute, and went low to explode past the Birds defender, before slipping it past Marcol.
That was but a preview of what was to come, and Aw would soon be curtailed by his yellow card in the 24th, for crudely blocking Phua Jing Wee's advance as he sought to follow up on Adem Boğ's rebound off the crossbar. That would not even stem Queenstown as Boğ duly scored on his next shot deep in the Birds box, and Phua would make it 3-0 himself 39 minutes in, not long after Amal Razin Abdul Rafi had set
Raúl Himadas on his behind, with a neat flip-flap.
The home fans were really rubbing it in now, and they were not deterred by Danish referee Asger Risum's yellow for Satya Khade, as the homegrown forward crashed full tilt into Himadas, in his eagerness to compound the Birds' misery. This backfired spectacularly as
Hisham Zubari rocketed the free-kick fifty yards upfield to the waiting
Lim An Keng, who threw Gavin Rotenberg off with a feint inside, before going around him the other way to reduce the deficit.
Half-time came and went with no letup in the downpour, but Grilled would minimally operate with more coordination. Zubari for one would start living up to his reputation for finding incisive passes, and unleashed a particularly fine specimen to
Chia Kwang Tse 52 minutes in. Sadly, Chia bent it wide. Bad fortune then hit as
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko's screamer from slightly left of centre rang off the bar in the 58th minute, which had Combo M'Madi up Queenstown's lead to 4-1, as Soo Jie carried the ball a long way up the right side.
It would take a miracle for a Birds comeback now, but fate would deliver perhaps half of one, as first Satya Khade got sent off for a second yellow after an undeniably late challenge on
Genki Nagano, which was accompanied by Romano Santirocchi's back seizing up at the other end of the field, to the home fans' complete disbelief. The Queenstown medical staff tried their best, but Santirocchi was not able to continue, which meant that 31 year-old backup goalkeeper London Ng had to make his first competitive appearance of the season.
Well, it would soon become clear why Ng had not been entrusted with the job earlier, as Grilled found a way past him on his first real test. After
Hwang Teck Fu thrashed it hard but straight at him in the 74th minute, Ng was not able to hold on to the shot, and parried it unconvincingly to the side... and right to
Lim An Keng's feet. The Grilled Number Eight was not going to pass up on such an open invitation, and poked it into the empty net on reflex.
That only encouraged Grilled Birds to test Ng as much as possible, and their instincts were proven correct within four minutes, as
Chad Thach's relatively weak grounder crept across the line, after he battled past Hernán Fernández del Cerro. The goal would be bitterly contested by Rotenberg, who contended that Thach had illegally held him off before that, but his confiscation of the match ball would be viewed dimly by the referee, who booked him for that. Rotenberg would then be off two minutes later as he fell heavily to the ground after an aerial contest against
Aw Keng Chuan in the box, and Goh Jie Yong had to sub in after Rotenberg complained about his right elbow.
That did bring a penalty for Queenstown MZKs as Risum judged that Aw had sneakily gotten a knee into Rotenberg's back upon reviewing the evidence, and Combo M'Madi would cradle the ball to the penalty spot, with
Radomil Marcol staring daggers at nothing in particular. All that mud made it a challenge to even identify the correct position, but Risum would eventually be satisfied, and M'Madi then threw Marcol off by slowing his final kick midway. Unfortunately, he wound up playing himself too, as he knocked it wide despite Marcol having gone the wrong direction.
It remained 4-3 then, which left Grilled with realistic hopes of saving a point at least. To this end, they bombarded the Queenstown end, but the home defence would bunker in tightly, having recognized their goalkeeper's frailty. The Birds' big chance arrived after a last-minute triple substitution, with
Chia Kwang Tse tripped up just outside the penalty area, four minutes into injury time.
Genki Nagano would take the free-kick with
Raúl Himadas having left, and sent pulses racing with his curler off the outside of the left upright.
