Grilled Birds 2 - 5
Haha 
Down To The Green
False Start
The Birds flattered to deceive by going two goals up against S-League competitors Haha, before a fifth straight loss against the Woodlands club - a fourth in the Singapore Cup. It was hard to argue that Haha didn't deserve it either, as they outclassed Grilled by far on the defensive end, a couple of early wobbles excepted.
Now in their ninth consecutive season in the top flight, Haha have however captured just the single Singapore Cup in that period, with two runners-up finishes delaying their maiden league title. There was no mistaking that they have been safely amongst the best few local club over much of that time, though, and newly-recruited Spanish head coach Enrique Turpín has expressed his intent to keep them up for as long as possible. To this end, he has refreshed his squad with Welsh fullback Stephen Swancott and Norwegian former youth international winger Shafiq Khan for close to S$19 million over the last couple of months, while selling aging stars such as national legend Chua Ze Xin, and Polish veteran Konrad Wawer.
Both Swancott and Khan would start today, with forwards Klas Bernhardsson and Tristan Gillot leading their attack in a 3-5-2. There were no surprises at all from
Tian Yonghang's end for Grilled, but
Brian Reddy would shortly pull one of his own. It appeared to be a routine floated backpass from Cyprus ex-U20 wide man Dimitrakis Stavrou in the fifteenth minute, but Reddy's madcap chase appeared to shake Fabrice Kasende's conviction. In the end, Reddy would manage to muscle the Congolese defender off the ball as it came down, and Ooi Ming Chuan couldn't recover quickly enough to stop the Grilled winger from slipping it past Gunārs Kļava.
If Grilled Birds were to beat the odds, this was the kind of initiative that they needed, and
Hwang Teck Fu was only glad to follow Reddy's example. The Birds did look good whenever they opened some space on the ball, and Cătălin Felecan might have provided a little to much of it to Hwang in the 24th minute. The forward would immediately find the shortest line towards the opposition goal, and his dribble would come close enough to allow a concluding drive into the bottom right corner.
The Haha fans at the Ballota definitely didn't expect to be two goals down, and this early at that, but they could be consoled by the fact that Turpín's players carried on unperturbed. This was a trust borne of sustained success against some of Singapore's best, and Haha would simply keep playing their own game. The probabilities would fall their way 37 minutes in as Shafiq Khan eased his way past
Darko Andrović after several failed attempts, and his long cross to Tristan Gillot was just delectable;
Radomil Marcol would look silly as he flapped at it ineffectually, and Gillot was left with a basic header to score.
Regardless, the Birds would make it to half-time still ahead, but the cracks were beginning to show by then. It was evident to most neutrals that Grilled were living on borrowed time, from how Haha were stringing them along towards the end of the first half, and they would soon be shown correct. Khan kept banging them in from the right, and Dimitrakis Stavrou would meet another extended delivery, with an impressive short volley in at the far post.
Grilled were sinking now with Haha coming into their own, and their defensive limitations were cruelly laid bare.
Ha Qicai and
Raúl Himadas had looked good in supporting a high line with the ball held by teammates, but their man-marking was somewhat lacking. Ooi Ming Hock had Haha in the lead barely five minutes after Stavrou's equalizer by just attacking the gap between them, and Gillot had it at 4-2 in the 68th minute on Himadas' slow reactions.
The Haha supporters knew they had it in the bag now, but their players were not prepared to leave anything to chance, and Cheong Chi Wen made triply sure with his slick inside-out ball to assist Ooi Ming Hock's 75th minute volley. This had a triumphant Turpín pull Bernhardsson for Cuban reserve Luis Ricardo Sáenz, with
Chad Thach's final act of defiance in injury time ushered to safety by the covering Fabrice Kasende.
