A Final Return
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Grilled Birds would finally get the better of II.3 favourites Sentoza Springboks at the third time of asking, and thereby spoil the Sentosa club's bid to complete their Challenger Cup collection. Seeing as last year's Round Four clash in the main cup had seen the Birds take a 2-6 hiding, today's 3-1 victory was far from a given for Grilled, especially considering their opponents' near-flawless competitive record this season, which has seen only Arrogancae best them in their sixteen matches total.
The Springboks kept with the 3-4-3 that had served them so well then, if with a wholly-different front three. Midfield saw Omar Lyhstål and Alessandro Nappo in for Freddie Abrahams - who has moved to Poland's Boro Borowiczki 91 - and Thomas Velankar, with Danish sweeper Eskild Rysgaard also departed to the Italian third division with Bad Wolf, and succeeded by Andorran signing Gabriel Cortadelles. Finnish Number One Leo Savolainen remained, and was talked up as the team's main hope by Springboks boss Sigbert Swärdbeck.
As for the Birds,
Tian Yonghang sprung a minor surprise by assigning
Hwang Teck Fu to be the central striker, and leaving
Lim An Keng on the bench for a more-defensive midfield arrangement that included both
Aw Keng Chuan and
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko. New man
Phillip Nagata would start on the bench, and with skipper
Ha Qicai also left out, Bosnian winger
Darko Andrović would lead the Grilled team out before kick-off.
It soon became clear that the Springboks were looking to attack mostly via Chiranjeev Muniyarayar on their right wing, whilst making it a priority to maintain a tight defensive block. The stakes got the better of the participants with plenty of misplaced passes early on, and former Faroese youth midfielder Niels Meitil brought a fine spell to a sorry end with an overhit through ball in the 22nd minute. The first real chance then fell to Hwang three minutes later after Andrović gave Israeli wingback Joseph Primm the slip, but he thumped it hard into the side netting with Savolainen waiting.
Aw Keng Chuan was the Birds' star performer in the first half as he disrupted the Springboks midfield with regularity, but this wouldn't be enough to stop Omar Lyhstål from giving his side the lead in the 30th minute, after Tahiti forward Teiki Ata let him past
Raúl Himadas with a sweet drag-through on the outside. Aw wasn't about to let that stand for long, though, and he threw Nappo off with a Cruyff turn worthy of any striker some seven minutes later, before cannoning the equalizer all but through the goalkeeper.
The game was thus all evens at half-time, and it was frankly hard to recognize who had the edge at this point. Grilled Birds had settled into a rhythm and were seeing slightly more of the ball, but the Springboks usually looked more dangerous on the offensive. Thus it was when Joel Örnman lost
Chia Kwang Tse in the 53rd minute before also skipping past an overeager
Genki Nagano, and he seemed almost certain to score - only to skew it horribly wide against the relieved
Radomil Marcol.
With it feeling like the next goal might well determine the final disposition of the contest, Serbian referee Aleksandar Petrović presented the Birds with a rare opportunity 58 minutes in, as he awarded
Chad Thach a free-kick after he got crowded by Meitil and Cortadelles.
Raúl Himadas left it for
Genki Nagano to change the angle of attack, but the Sentoza Springboks weren't taken in, and
Gandhik Chitre couldn't even get a clear look at goal.
The next stoppage had Swärdbeck pull Niels Meitil off for Thomas Velankar, who also inherited the armband from the departing Number Six. This didn't help the Springboks' creation process, however, as Grilled continued knocking on the door with a short attempted pass from
Hwang Teck Fu to the oncoming
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko only cleared by a hair. The referee would then again favour Grilled with his penalty call against Primm for what appeared to be the slightest of handballs in the 70th minute, which was all
Raúl Himadas needed to put Grilled into the lead, with his calm stroke to Savolainen's left post.
Both the Springboks fans and players must have felt hard done by at that, all the more with replays showing that Primm knew nothing about the ball when contact was made. They would go hard against the Birds' defence from the restart, but Teiki Ata would be bumped off the ball by
Chia Kwang Tse in the middle of a promising dribble. The Tahitian youngster retaliated with a fierce sliding tackle, that will see him ruled out of the coming league match for his third yellow of the season.
Grilled Birds were in no hurry to resume play as Chia got his leg examined by the team medic, but once they did, there was another goal in the making. Himadas would wait on the ball for his teammates to spread themselves out, and his long free-kick did not disappoint in gliding right to
Brian Reddy's feet. The veteran winger feinted an inside pass before cutting hard past an off-balance Choong Yeng Aik, but the finish appeared headed straight to Savolainen... before a freak bounce took it just under the goalkeeper's waiting gloves.
The Springboks were entitled to feel doubly cheated by this turn of events, but Reddy wasn't about to apologize;
Tian Yonghang knew what to do too, as he seized on the opportunity to withdraw the hobbling
Chia Kwang Tse, with
Lim An Keng high-fiving his old friend as he came on. Five minutes later, it was Swärdbeck's turn to draw on his reserves for a second time, as Spanish fullback Iván Colunga entered to try and push his team upfield more often.
There was ultimately no turning this around for the Sentosa club, unfortunately for them, and the Birds would hog the ball for the final few minutes - with Petrović drawing the ire of the Springboks one last time by signalling for a single minute of added time.
