Fringe Benefits
Against All Odds
S-League club Sarcastic Fringeheads might have had Grilled Birds on possession, but it was the Birds who got almost all of the actual chances, in this 2-0 victory in the Round of Sixteen of the Singapore Cup. The sides had last met five years ago in the Sapphire Challenger Cup semifinals as part of the Birds' winning bid, which had
Lim An Keng find the winner after İrem Aktay had opened in the 50th minute.
It would be another defensive approach from Fringeheads, although they were explicitly not counterattacking in the 4-5-1, and instead expected Swedish captain Ricky Gyllenflod to put them through. Special attention was moreover provided for
Phillip Nagata, who had Spanish wingback Cristian Opincariu on his heels whenever he made an incursion. This would have left
Wu Ping De unattended, had the Fringeheads not been as practised at shifting their lines as they were.
As for the Birds,
Mohd Marzuki Khairul would be trusted in central midfield despite his scandalous dismissal in the Dominion International Cup some days back, which may have as much to do with Grilled's thin squad as anything.
Chad Thach would be held in reserve with
Lim An Keng and
Chia Kwang Tse flanking Hwang in attack, with there being no big changes.
Expectedly for a game of this importance, the teams played it safe as far as was possible to begin with, with the ball seldom progressing into either final third for the first ten minutes. The ongoing shower wouldn't encourage clever play either, as
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko would belatedly realise as his backpass went badly astray, 28 minutes in. Fortunately for him, Ricky Gyllenflod wasn't fully prepared for that too, and he hit it wide with
Radomil Marcol sloshing desperately after him.
This was a wake-up call for Grilled, who began to move the ball upfield as quickly as possible thereafter. This in fact worked wonders with their opponents finding it tricky to defend in the conditions, with Choi Seng Leong unwilling to get too close to
Hwang Teck Fu as the centre forward advanced in the 37th minute. This was a huge mistake, with Hwang getting as far as the six-yard box before hammering it past Rareş-Mihai Başturea.
The final five minutes of the half saw Sarcastic Fringeheads' best self-made opportunity of the day, with Gyllenflod again free in the penalty area after excellent build-up play by Quek Jie Kok. Unfortunately for him, his finish rang off the crossbar, and led to a good spell for the Birds in turn.
Ananda Hettiarachchi's assistive abilities might be beyond reproach, but his striking could do with more work, from how he fired straight at Başturea from a promising central position three minutes later.
Still, Grilled were ahead and thriving where it mattered, with Fringeheads unable to find the moxie that had them beat Arrogancae 2-0 on Sunday. Their attacking 3-4-3 could have had something to do with that, as Gyllenflod never quite managed to find his footing again. The Birds were instead pressing all the right buttons with
Genki Nagano delivering a 57th minute corner deep to the far end of the penalty area, where
Phillip Nagata drove it hard off the near post.
Russian head coach Emil Lagoda could see when things weren't working out, and he would sacrifice defender Brayden Vo to put Spanish forward Ivan Tordera on shortly afterwards. The new 3-5-2 did look a lot more dynamic when Fringeheads went on the attack, which sadly for them was not quite often enough.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul worked his socks off in the middle against arguably superior technical talent, which was what this match called for.
Wu Ping De then nearly delivered comeuppance for being overlooked, as he came around the back to meet Hwang's sly layoff, only to find the woodwork too. An equaliser felt very much a possibility then, but
Lim An Keng had other ideas, as he had half a decade ago. He understood exactly what
Chia Kwang Tse was doing with his sprint across the backline in the 66th minute, and the exchange between the duo was something possibly only between teammates who had been playing together since they were kids. There remained the business of putting it past Başturea, but Lim was up to it.
