Strife Without Grief
Chad Overcomes All
Former national striker
Chad Thach roared back into life in this midweek Singapore Cup third round game against III.12 leaders Strifer, as the Birds mashed the City club 5-1, on the back of his very-early hat-trick. It took all of twenty minutes for the Chad to put Grilled three up, and by the time Aage Vorgaard recorded their consolation goal in the 69th minute, the Birds had long switched off.
Descended from the short-lived F.C Evolution trio of clubs, Strifer had hung around for 16 seasons this time, and reached as high as Division Two just three seasons back - although they didn't last in II.1. Young head coach Deng Chuan Li had overseen that promotion in his four years in charge so far, which has included multi-million dollar buys such as Swiss goalkeeper Stelvio Porcellini, Colombian defender Jairo Bohórquez and French forward Mauro Soligon.
Of these, only Soligon would not be picked today, as Strifer resolved to stay with their accustomed attacking 3-4-3, despite it not sufficing in their latest qualifier against Padstow Pirates. It had carried them in the cup thus far though, not to mention two huge whitewashes in the league against Ang Mo Kio Juniors and then Red Chaos, which had Porcellini barely tested on each occasion.
Still, Grilled Birds were an entirely different proposition altogether, and the promise of watching the likes of
Chad Thach back in his favourite centre forward position, drew over fifty-five thousand to the Ballota. Thach would not disappoint, and after a seventh-minute free-kick by
Genki Nagano went straight into the defensive wall, Thach would curl it almost nonchalently to the top corner but three minutes later, as
Hwang Teck Fu played the obvious pass beforehand.
This had Strifer's experienced Paraguayan defender Fermín Medina exhort his backline to keep an eye on Thach, but that was far easier said than done. Four minutes later, an overconfident attempt to dribble out of a tight spot by Bohórquez would see Thach nip in and tuck a second goal away, and twenty minutes had barely struck on the clock when the Number Ten turned on the afterburners, and rocketed his hat-trick goal past the goalkeeper through sheer power.
The Birds supporters would render their catchy "
For he's a good old Chad" song on repeat at that, with the opposition fans looking glumly on, and it was still going strong when Hwang again took Spanish central midfielder Felipe Colip for a ride, within two minutes of the third goal. Sri Lankan star
Ananda Hettiarachchi - playing right attack today - timed his run behind perfectly, and it was four after Porcellini stayed too close to his near post.
Grilled were operating on automatic now, and
Dan Alstani would have the wherewithal to experiment without worry. He put
Genki Nagano on the right wing for the second half, swapping with the solid but unspectacular
Hisham Zubari, which had Strifer's Malaysian winger BN Ramisetty try his luck with a surging dribble three minutes in. Mongolian referee Tumen Lhavga wasn't taken by his flying into Zubari's leg in an effort to win a penalty, however, and neither was Zubari himself.
That would be a yellow card for Ramisetty, who wisely saved his objections until the official's back was turned, and the match continued with Grilled still holding the lion's share of possession. They weren't even pushing too hard in attack, but the sheer quantity of chances meant that some had to get through, as with Medina's overly-tight marking of
Paulino Trindade in the 55th minute. That allowed
Lim An Keng through and clear, and the Birds midfielder read Porcellini well in opting to shoot right when he started his rush.
This made it 5-1 by the 55th minute, which had
Aw Keng Chuan replace
Chia Kwang Tse for the final half-hour. This left the Birds having to reconfigure themselves, and Strifer found themselves reaching deeper into Grilled territory. Richard Beiersdörfer found
Genki Nagano a little slow on the turn today, and a pacy cross in the 69th minute would be met by the head of Danish teenager Aage Vorgaard, who had
Radomil Marcol flailing at the ball a second too late.
It was not like a single goal was going to turn the match around, of course, and Grilled might well have matched it in the 78th minute. Several consecutive attempts would be blocked by the mass of Strifer bodies in the box, and the assault only concluded with a penalty awarded for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's strike into Damián Plaiz's outstretched left arm.
Genki Nagano's bad day continued, unfortunately, as Stelvio Porcellini dived early and far enough to make the save.
Not only that, there would be a booking for
Aw Keng Chuan as the Grilled veteran tried to argue for a retake, before making a sloppy sliding tackle on Uruguay forward Santiago Capellino whilst clearly not being in the right frame of mind. It would take several of his teammates to calm him down as Lhavga gave him a lecture, and the remainder of the match proceeded without incident.
