Three Ayes
AMDK Stand Firm
Grilled Birds would be drawn against AMDK FC in a cup fixture for the second time in three seasons, and the Sentosa long-timers would hold out a lot better against them today, than in their 1-6 defeat previously. This was probably not down to any tactical innovation with Chinese head coach Zheng Xiaoxiong staying with the 4-5-1 he had used then, if with minor tweaks like Canadian forward Dani Landry now regularly floating over to the right, in an evident attempt to overload
Genki Nagano together with winger Tim Jamotte.
There would be a few personnel changes too, key amongst them being then-captain Uvindu Wijesuriya getting dropped for French sweeper Xavier Fayard. Veteran fullbacks Collin Bynum and Querubín Gundelach would also make their first appearances against Grilled Birds, with wing attackers Ramón Ismael Coria and Vasil Stoyanov excluded, in an evident effort at focusing on defence first.
This went quite well for the hosts in fact, who had their confidence buoyed by a four-match winning streak, including a fantastic 4-1 over War Nation FC on Sunday that had Wijesuriya scoring twice. The Birds hardly had a sniff in the first half-hour, what with
Chad Thach finding it difficult to build an understanding with new strike partners
Ananda Hettiarachchi and
Paulino Trindade, and it would be some time before they found their footing.
Temperatures rose when Quinto Checchinato hacked
Genki Nagano down on the touchline in the 27th minute, which had referee Austin Huber visibly hesitate before settling for a yellow card, to the disapproval of the Grilled fans who had seen the tackle. This would mark a noticeable shift in the Birds' attacking effectiveness, with Genki nearly getting his own back from a driven free-kick, four minutes on. This would soon be followed by a corner floated across the box, that wound up with
Hisham Zubari after a mass of players jostled themselves out of contention. Sadly, Zubari found the post with goalie Patriek Gijssel sliding over late.
A goal was coming nonetheless, and thus was it that
Ananda Hettiarachchi pounced on a moment of indecisiveness from Adli Mohd Khyril in the 38th minute, to loot the ball and bury it within the space of a few seconds. Grilled then piled on the pressure with
Paulino Trindade's flying header batted only to
Chad Thach, who smashed it against the same post that Zubari had; AMDK FC might even have drawn level from the ensuing counter, but Spanish midfielder Máximo Gabert gave
Radomil Marcol too much respect, and skewed his finish a yard wide.
The second half began with
Genki Nagano moving up the left wing with
Hisham Zubari dropping into left centreback, which coincided with a period of good initiative from the home team. Dani Landry started his best move of the day thus far in the 51st minute, as he brought several teammates into an intricate passing combination that saw him facing
Radomil Marcol alone in the box. Landry went for the measured chip to a loud roar from the massed AMDK FC fans... but it spun off his foot wrongly.
Dan Alstani took
Chia Kwang Tse off for
Aw Keng Chuan in an evident adjustment towards protecting the Birds' slim lead, which was not taken particularly well from the travelling support, from the muted reaction. Grilled were still producing, if at low volume, but AMDK FC's numbers expelled a prospective free-kick 69 minutes in.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's bender was then headed off the line by Xavier Fayard four minutes later, which led to Adli Mohd Khyril blasting a great strike off the crossbar, having run the length of the pitch on the breakaway.
One could hardly fault the home supporters from feeling optimistic about their chances after that, but Marzuki would be back to pour cold water on their dreams.
Hisham Zubari would be provided far too much time and space on the ball as he ambled upfield, as
Chad Thach ran amok in the opposition penalty area. That freed Marzuki - as Zubari did not fail to recognize - for the pass, and the Number Five drew Patriek Gijssel out expertly, before slotting it past him at the near post.
That all but crushed AMDK FC's spirits, and they were three down right after kick-off, with Landry running into a brick wall in his haste to bring his team back into contention. A quick spin and release by
Lim An Keng had
Hwang Teck Fu charging the opposition defence heedlessly... or so it seemed, as he was then able to stop on a dime and swipe it left to the onrushing
Hisham Zubari, who flashed it into the back of the net off Gijssel's reaching glove.
