Barca Champions
Shin Extends Curse
FC Barca Singapore secured the II.2 title with three rounds to spare, with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory at The Cooking Pot. This left
Tian Yonghang with much reflection to do on Grilled Birds' future development, as the head coach struggled to right his floundering ship.
Barca had been on a six-match winning streak and eleven game unbeaten run since Dragon Devil's bested them 2-0 in their only competitive defeat of a glittering season, and although this fixture away to the Birds had long been discussed as perhaps their toughest remaining test, it was a pretty sorry-looking Grilled side that would entertain them;
Tian Yonghang did have
Gandhik Chitre to start in attack, after the want-away forward had yet to secure a deal.
Their Slovenian boss Tobi Urbancl would declare a defensive 5-4-1, that left Nigerian forward John Ikem alone facing off against
Aw Keng Chuan to the right side of attack. Swiss midfielder Claus-Dieter Eichstaedt fortified Barca against a reshuffled Birds middle three of
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko,
Hwang Teck Fu and
Chad Thach, with new signings
Hisham Zubari and
Phillip Nagata supporting them from the wings.
It certainly started well for Grilled, despite the soon-obvious intentions of former Barbados international Sheldon Lightbourne to shackle Chitre wherever he went. This much lasted for some eleven minutes, before
Hwang Teck Fu saw opposing sweeper Chris Jourdan venture a little too forward. His defence-splitting pass had Chitre off and away with Lightbourne in hot pursuit and Suat Esener trying to sandwich him from the other direction, but the Grilled Number Nine's pace was something else, and he pushed the ball back across Esener at the last moment, before striking it past Ivan Ivić with his other foot.
The well-populated home stands would beseech Tian to keep Gandhik with their singing in response, which the spirited visiting supporters gamely tried to drown out with a staccato 7-4 chant, referencing Grilled's defeat earlier in the season. The Birds displayed few signs of succumbing at this early stage, though, and
Phillip Nagata bypassed Ramon Grasser in a classic winger's touchline dribble, 19 minutes in. The deep cross wasn't half bad either, and
Lim An Keng outleapt all comers, to bash a fantastic header into the net!
Everything pointed to Grilled coming away with a positive result even after John Ikem pulled one back from a wonderful solo run 26 minutes in, that had Adin Åkesson run interference to the outside. The remainder of the half saw no less than three probable goal opportunities, with
Hisham Zubari first flubbing his volley eight yards from a yawning goalmouth, before
Gandhik Chitre sold Aadil M'Madi a dummy, only to have Ivić bail Barca out with a brave block.
The ball wasn't quite cleared, and Zubari would find himself sitting with it on the right side of the box, before figuring that he might as well have a go. M'Madi's defending wasn't convincing yet again as the Birds winger went past him in a flash, and the razor-sharp drive rippled the netting after eluding the goalkeeper... but only from the outside. A relieved Ivić retrieved the ball and sent it straight down the centre, where Luis Esteban Espeleta got it under control, and knocked it on for the early-breaking early-breaking to equalize with panache.
That seemed to have shut the Birds fans up, only for them to return to full voice as Grilled made the most of their one minute of added time. Their kick-off formation suggested that they were settling for a tie for now, but
Chia Kwang Tse would then lead a collective charge into the Barca ranks. This had
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko mostly unattended as
Chad Thach rolled it across to him, and the Myanmar star conjured up a quite incredible lob, for 3-2.
The home contingent would make sure they were heard throughout the fifteen-minute interval after that, and Grilled began the next half strongly too, with another aggressive mass advance that ended with Chitre being tripped about three yards outside the box.
Genki Nagano's searching free-kick would be tipped over by Ivić, however, and FC Barca Singapore counterattacked decisively following the failed corner. A couple of quick exchanges freed Bosnian winger Ajdin Vanović for a one-on-one against
Radomil Marcol, who went by the book in his rush off his line - but it wasn't good enough.
Three-all after 48 minutes it was, then, and the commentators would have a field day on whether Marcol had recovered from what looked like a jarred right knee, sustained late in the previous half. Marcol would not have time to rest as Adin Åkesson then came through to lift one onto his crossbar, after which it was the Birds' turn to break hard from
Aw Keng Chuan's speculative long pass down the middle.
Gandhik Chitre barely caught up with it as Eichstaedt let it past him, but Ivan Ivić made the save in style.
It was getting very tense now, as the teams realized that time was running out, and Urbancl would be the more proactive with his substitutions. He prepared a double swap with twenty minutes remaining, taking off the duo of Adin Åkesson and Chris Jourdan, who had certainly worked their tails off for the day. In their place, Kimi Rauhanen and Shin Sugimoto entered, with this being the former Japanese youth international's official debut for Barca, after a S$7.8 million transfer from Dutch Division Six side Lola United.
Not much would be happening on the field as the players started committing uncharacteristic errors when on the ball, leading to plenty of disjointed attacks that petered out long before threatening the goalkeepers. Tian made his move towards the end as he put
Brian Reddy and
Raúl Himadas on for Aw and Nagata - but this turned out to be a poor decision, as Shun Sugimoto turned Himadas in the first minute of stoppage time to score, for a dream introduction to the Singapore scene.
