Tied And Dyed
Rise Of Troy
Grilled Birds demolished IV.13 club tiegdir 7-1 in the second round of the Singapore Cup, but given how they had won promotion just a fortnight after their official founding - and brought in a single, unplayed youngster in Florin-Constantin Iacob - there was really nothing to be ashamed about. 21 year-old midfielder Troy Tu would moreover enjoy the game of his career thus far, after scoring against
Radomil Marcol on the half-hour mark.
tiegdir head coach Png Wei Chao had assembled a young and hungry squad to start with, with their eldest player being 33 year-old midfielder Balasubramaniam Damodaran, who had coincidentally suffered a bad foot injury in their first-round victory against Hiddens United. Number Seven Yeoh Tse Sze would thus be the team's big brother at left wing, with the armband given to striker Bhaumik Date - probably more for his football ability, than any particular charisma.
The Birds had fielded a fairly strong XI against this, with
Chia Kwang Tse eager to continue pressing his case for a return to a regular spot, with his movement from right forward. His finishing against young goalkeeper Chau An Wai left something to be desired in the eighth minute, however, and tiegdir had their first big chance 16 minutes in... only for Tang Li Yew to completely misread the bounce of the ball, after all that Yeoh Tse Sze had done against a not-very-motivated
Chad Thach.
The home fans evidently saw holding out for over twenty minutes as winning, but this comfy state of affairs would cease in the 29th minuute, when
Brian Reddy slashed inside to open. There would then be a huge roar as flavour of the month Troy Tu latched onto Jedidiah Ni's hasty forward lob seconds after kick-off, and he would catch Marcol unawares with an unorthodox chip that came hard off the hard pitch.
There was no discouraging Troy now, not after he had also won their previous cup game with a top-class free-kick, but a yellow card for twisting
Chia Kwang Tse's arm in jostling for position some four minutes later, would bring him back to earth somewhat. This was followed by Reddy putting the Birds ahead again after nobody made to clear a long bomb by
Ha Qicai, and it was 4-1 by half-time thanks to a soft penalty converted by
Raúl Himadas, and then
Lim An Keng banging home the rebound from
Gandhik Chitre's initial attempt that came off the bar.
No-one could have real expectations of tiegdir overturning a three-goal deficit, but they were not shrinking from the game either. The Jedidiah-Troy combo would be reprised two minutes into the new half as the hosts went from zero to eleven, but
Radomil Marcol was in position this time.
Chad Thach would then find a fifth with his quick thinking in the 60th minute, with
Ha Qicai teasing a thirty-yarder that whistled by the upright, on the next possession.
Jedidiah and Troy were
still not done, and by far the most productive partnership of tiegdir would create something the other way, with the latter drilling in a waist-high corner that Ni forced onto the goalpost.
Radomil Marcol started berating his defenders when
Raúl Himadas decided that he would rather be elsewhere, and he would up making it 6-1 after a homing final ball from
Aw Keng Chuan fell into his lap.
There would be a dangerous tackle from behind by Nordin Khairul Helmi in the 69th minute that he was fortunate to stay on the field after, and
Chad Thach would be there to finish off the long free-kick once the dust had settled.
Damian Hutter replaced Andrović in the 89th, just in time to witness
Raúl Himadas going for his hat-trick from outside the box, as the referee lifted the whistle to his lips to call time. It wasn't that far away, either!
