Sailing Into The Glen
Building For The Future
Grilled Birds bounced back from their weekend league loss with a 5-0 sweep of Pasir Ris IV.43 leaders Singapore Lion City Sailors FC, who came into the match with wins against Brotherhood SG and PenaldoFC. The latter had Shashank Prabhu wow the home fans with a stylish brace, and they would give a loud cheer as his name was announced at Bishan Stadium today. German custodian Matti Blomberg, the Sailors' record signing at just under S$2.5 million, would keep goal today, with Chilean centreback Vicente Recabal starting too despite reportedly carrying bruises from a mid-air collision this Sunday.
The Birds remained assured enough to try
Hisham Zubari and
Genki Nagano in midfield, accompanying the unlikely sight of
Chad Thach and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul at the back. Neither planned to stay back a second longer than they had to, it seemed, and there would soon be plenty of interchanging going on between the Grilled players. Thach for one would find himself in a far more familiar position just inside the opposition penalty area seven minutes in, and his first-time lob off
Wu Ping De's waist-high pass would clang off the crossbar.
The hosts retained plenty of spunk while keeping Grilled at bay, and the question soon became whether they could spring a surprise before the Birds got through. Blomberg played his part well with several top-drawer saves in the meantime, most prominently against
Hisham Zubari's scorcher from eight yards after about fifteen minutes. Grilled were not letting up, however, and they went ahead on half an hour, with 19 year-old
Mason Glendinning slicing past Everett Lor and chipping it past Blomberg.
Glendinning was certainly the man of the moment, with his energy infecting his teammates, and his sometimes unorthodox decisions proved key to unlocking the stolid Sailors backline. There appeared no reason why he would hit it thirty yards back to Zubari while in a promising position five minutes later, or why Zubari had to risk a long diagonal pass when he had numbers straight ahead of him, but it all ended well with
Wu Ping De making it 2-0.
Genki Nagano then missed a big chance, before Glendinning got booked for laying into Vincent Wahrenberger, requiring Velasco Riesco to enter the fray after a good weekend debut.
The home fans had not given up despite the Sailors' disadvantageous position, but the gap in ability would soon be too much to bear. Singapore Lion City Sailors FC's 4-4-2 might be tactically sound, but the Birds' mobility would oft expose them;
Kendell El Khateeb slotted a third goal in from the right side 55 minutes in, with Blomberg scrambling to deny Wu three minutes on. The Sailors' French boss Vincent Vignaux was not entirely passive, and put Zainuddin Thabrani on at fullback for the tiring Aw An Sze - which did relieve their right flank against Wu somewhat.
The substitution had the Sailors raise their game to perhaps its apex for the day, and a creative advance up the middle nearly had Prabhu freed, only for
Genki Nagano to save the day with an inch-perfect sliding challenge, only to be fouled in turn. Everett Lor tried to prevent the free-kick from being taken and was carded for his pains, at which Vignaux took the opportunity to swop Benjamin Heeler out for the teenaged Juanjo Laflor in attack.
If the intent was to provide Laflor with experience, there would not be much of that on the offensive end, as Grilled swiftly resumed normal service. They took their time before the restart, but
Genki Nagano's delivery was immaculate, and found
Hwang Teck Fu's chest from within a sea of players in the Sailors' box. As for Hwang, his initial attempt was bravely blocked by Vicente Recabal, but that proved a momentary delay as Hwang simply collected the ball again, and smashed it home whilst holding Liew Kong Keong off from the side.
The fifth and final goal arrived three minutes on in the 71st, and it would be
Mason Glendinning to do the honours, if with
Ananda Hettiarachchi having done the hard preliminaries of dribbling past two men to open the required space up. The Sailors arguably did deserve a consolation for their efforts, and Grilled's easing up towards the end allowed them an in, with Prabhu earning a corner against
Chad Thach with eight minutes remaining. Alas, Liew Kong Keong drilled it into the post from six yards, after Everett Lor's fell to him at the back post.
