Sancho Dismissed
Ocaña Pride
The Birds advanced to the fourth round of the Singapore Cup against Woodlands IV.16 leaders Sancho Panza Team, snapping their amazing streak of four straight wins, each by at least seven goals - while not conceding any. As it was, it took but eight minutes for
Hwang Teck Fu to take that proud record, after
Brian Reddy overran steadily-developing Syrian defender Mahmoud Hindi down the right touchline.
Sancho Panza had assembled a squad for the future, that was clear, with visionary German boss Gisbert Friedenau deploying a team wholly made up of 21 and 22 year-olds. The sole exception would be veteran legacy goalkeeper Soh Beng Shun, who had barely been tested in their previous matches. Well, today would be a different kettle of fish altogether, and Soh's questionable shotstopping would be badly shown up against Hwang, with his attempted block coming noticeably slow.
Soh could hardly be faulted for not keeping
Raúl Himadas' 20th minute penalty out, after Qatari referee Fahd Al-Kawari spotted persistent impingement on
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's movement in the box. No custodian could have gotten to the wallop into the top right corner, where it came off the woodwork for added effect.
Brian Reddy's grounder from about ten yards would be rather more saveable, but the goalie was unfortunately unsighted by teammate Nelson Medina for that.
Sancho Panza arrested their slide about this point with German left winger Lars Eintracht exhibiting maturity beyond his tender years in assuming field command, and their newfound belief would even birth a reply in the 40th minute; Dušan Đorđević exchanged several slick passes with his mates before spotting Francisco Ocaña's drive towards
Damian Hutter, and the through ball was placed beautifully into the path of the Mexican runner. Hwang would cancel it out immediately off an industrious
Darko Andrović dash down the left, but the home crowd were not letting the Birds fans forget their moment of glory for all that.
The attendance would be confirmed as just over fifty thousand during the half-time interval, definitely a respectable turnout even at the Division Two level. Friedenau had his young team fired up for the second half, and they could well have gotten another back, with a bit of luck. Sancho Panza would be especially dangerous whenever they moved play out wide on breakaways, and Eintracht would successfully set French striker Aristide Manière up in the 54th minute. Manière couldn't beat
Radomil Marcol with power alone, however.
Sancho Panza had not learnt to pace themselves properly yet, or perhaps it didn't matter given the number of goals that they had to make up.
Chia Kwang Tse made it look easy with an almost nonchalant touch in a 61st minute goalmouth melee, while Manière would get no joy from the referee on his tumble off a solid
Raúl Himadas shoulder charge in the 75th minute, which brought baying from the supporters. This only intensified as Grilled Birds played on and broke through on the right, where Mahmoud Hindi unexpectedly let
Hwang Teck Fu's scuffed pass through, to allow
Chad Thach a simple tap-in.
If Fahd Al-Kawari had become unpopular with the Sancho Panza crowd for his calls throughout the match, this was nothing compared to the reactions he would get from here on. 81 minutes in, Nelson Medina appeared to put it on a plate for Lars Eintracht after Marcol had missed a corner, only for the winger to be slyly nudged over by
Aw Keng Chuan - to no reaction from the referee. He
did award Grilled a second penalty two minutes later after
Chia Kwang Tse seemed to have been impeded by Porfire Bob just outside the box, before the previous outroar had subsided, and that only poured fuel onto the fire.
Much of the home bench had to be restrained from physically approaching Al-Kawari by the Sancho Panza ground staff, even as the referee fended off an indignant mob on the pitch. It took some minutes for the match officials to regain control, after which
Raúl Himadas rolled it past Soh Beng Shun while almost looking apologetic for once.
Brian Reddy would then volley an eighth goal home in the 88th minute, which was followed by
Chan Ze Han and
Kendell El Khateeb entering, but by this point there would be only one villian for the home fans - and it wasn't a Grilled player.
