They Did Not Give Up
One For All Ages
Talk about Grilled Birds' - and indeed, any club's - history in the Singapore Cup, and it would be hard to best that memorable 6-5 victory after extra time in Season 75, which won them their fourth trophy. That landmark might finally have been topped, however, by the Birds' penalty shootout win against United Legends FC in today's semifinals, after a breathless thriller that had each side score seven times in 120 minutes.
There was nary a second of tedium in all of that too, with the Legends threatening to run away with it by the 33rd minute, only for Grilled to draw level in the second half, before nearly stealing it in stoppage time... and that was just the beginning. Secrecy ruled the build-up with the respective managements refusing to comment on the lineups, with there eventually being only minor tweaks from Grilled.
Johann Schwietzer started in defence, as was expected, with
Hisham Zubari and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul picked;
Chad Thach and
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko cut forlorn figures on the bench, but they would really get into the mood, as the match unfolded.
The Legends elected to meet Grilled Birds in their own element with a 2-5-3 formation, as opposed to the 4-5-1 that got them past HEBFC Tonners FC, or the 3-5-2 that they had fielded to good effect against FC Barca Singapore. Young Turkish gaffer Nizami Alpar restored Kuwaiti Hilal Al-Hashmi to the midfield, with newly 38 year-old Fred Cui manning a tight back two together with academy buddy and former national star Abd Jamil Wardi. Nicaraguan forward Agustín Pena would have ready support today, with Toros Yönetmen and veteran Chinese poacher Liu Wenpeng on either side.
Liu would contest the coin flip against
Genki Nagano as Legends captain, and there would be a brief moment of levity as Italian referee Attilio Stancari struggled to locate his coin in the mud. The toss was eventually retaken to the somewhat incongruous sight of the main gallery being packed way beyond capacity, with the organizers having somehow installed some eight thousand temporary seats under the roofed sections. This was definitely welcome, given how the rain was pouring, as it had over the past few hours.
Visibility was understandably poor in the circumstances, and much of what went on initially could hardly be termed football, with simply navigating the pitch being a challenge. It was United Legends FC who got used to the conditions first, and the day began in earnest when Agustín Pena cheekily nicked the ball off Yönetmen, in the 22nd minute. It got deadly serious for the Birds as he went on to ghost past
Genki Nagano with a subtle shoulder-drop, and the ball was in the net almost before
Radomil Marcol could react to that.
The Grilled fans were defiant as they raised their volume against the furious patter of the rain, but it only went downhill for them from there. Pena had rightly made himself the centre of attention with his fearless running, and he got a second goal six minutes later, having stayed on his feet for just a step longer than Schwietzer had wanted. It was then 3-0 for Legends in the 33rd minute as Liu Wenpeng struck at full power after a deft exchange with Vilko Hovén on the edge of the box, as Marcol couldn't get enough of his body behind the tremendous effort.
A lot of teams would have wilted there and then, but Grilled, as it turned out, was not one of them. It was hard to detect their players' emotions as they got into position for a third restart - though some of this had to be due to all the water in the air - and they grabbed the lifeline they desperately needed, in the 36th minute. The Legends backline got a little sloppy as
Ananda Hettiarachchi advanced slowly, and were not able to prevent
Chia Kwang Tse from slipping through to reduce.
The Birds' relief would be short-lived, but truly it may be pointless to linger on individual minutes, given how quickly things were moving.
Phillip Nagata had the fans on their feet as he smartly reversed direction against Abd Jamil Wardi, only for
Wu Ping De to curl it wide of the open right post. The Legends would then win and convert a penalty through Fred Cui after a retreating
Hisham Zubari got called for a contestable handball, and the sight of the Number Three yelling at the skies after making it 2-4 barely two minutes later on a coordinated charge down the middle, was something to behold indeed.
United Legends FC would have to be the happier team with a two-goal lead in the bag, but the cliché about this being the most dangerous margin might well have something to it. Grilled Birds raised their game in tandem with the weather clearing, and they would soon present as the more-active side.
Phillip Nagata overran Uzbek icon Umidshox Abduvorisov 62 minutes in, and his timely pullback to
Ananda Hettiarachchi resulted in a third goal for Grilled, driven well out of Pastor Obrajero's reach.
The Legends support appeared to only now recognize that victory was hardly assured, and their heightened cheering had Abduvorisov power one towards Marcol's top corner three minutes on, although that went askew at the end of its flight. Grilled had all the impetus, if not the scoreline, with them now, and the stadium reacted almost with disbelief as
Hwang Teck Fu bent a long-awaited equalizer past Obrajero, in the 71st minute.
It was mostly a mental game at this point, as the players balanced the lure of winning the semifinals outright with the next goal, against the very real risk of conceding in a match that had already seen eight of them. Nothing much would come of this caution, with both parties having seemingly settled for extra time... when
Hwang Teck Fu popped up inside the box in the first minute of injury time, to send an unexpected lob soaring over the goalkeeper, and just under the bar.
The Ballota all but exploded at what
had to be the matchwinner, surely, as Hwang's teammates mobbed the chosen one. It was the Legends' turn to exhibit their fortitude, however, and they would kick-off into a methodical rotation of the ball to the right wing, where John Mackay burst into an unrestrained dribble. He seemingly had nowhere to go, but his sharp inside pass to Hilal Al-Hashmi would be tapped on for Toros Yönetmen, as the Grilled fans realised to their horror that all their defenders had been accounted for.
Johann Schwietzer tried to get in his way, but not before Yönetmen had released his drive for five-all!
The stands were in absolute shambles now with nary a spectator left seated, and it was all Stancari and the match officials could do to restore order and get the teams back into position for extra time. This finally got going several minutes late as the pitch was cleared, and Grilled resumed their posture of control - but with little to show for it. The Legends exploited their tactical flexibility with a swift release of the ball by Abd Jamil Wardi up the left flank, and Agustín Pena completed his hat-trick after outlasting Grilled's defenders in a two-on-two raid with Liu.
United Legends FC regained their two-goal advantage two minutes later, with Mackay controlling a floated crossfield ball excellently against
Wu Ping De, allowing him to get a step on the Grilled winger. The Birds were admittedly fast to close him down, but Mackay came up with a wonderful deep cross right as Hilal Al-Hashmi went for it from midfield.
Ananda Hettiarachchi tracked the Kuwaiti dutifully, but could not get in front of him, and Al-Hashmi's glancing header eluded
Radomil Marcol's stretch, for 5-7 to the Legends.
The commentators were almost at a loss for words by now, and it would be some time before one of them decided to remind that the Birds had fought back from a worse position - but surely it was too late now? Well, no. Some of the Grilled players looked almost in a trance by now, and their forward passing on the next possession felt almost involuntary.
Lim An Keng hardly seemed to notice as he clipped Hwang's first-time pass back at him - as he must have done thousands of times in training - and was barely looking when Hwang duly returned the favour. Pastor Obrajero made himself big, but Lim found the necessary gap between him and his near post.
The latest uproar had barely subsided by the time the Legends restarted the game, and if Francisco Marciano was trying to telegraph confidence by running the ball upfield, this backfired badly as he was dispossessed by Marzuki and Zubari working in concert.
Chia Kwang Tse was the man furthest forward as Marzuki considered his outlet pass, and he did not disappointed as he went past not one but two defenders, before shooting hard and true. It was hard to be sure whether he meant for the ball to swerve as it approached the goalkeeper, but it was all square again in any case.
Both sets of fans were glued to the action now, with a dramatic winner yet up for grabs; not even the Birds had the stomach to go all in at this juncture, though, and the referee finally ended that anticipation by blowing for the end of extra time - and thus penalties.
Reactions by the coaches would diverge here, with
Dan Alstani making a triple substitution, putting
Fu Wenlong,
Dimitris Germanakos and
Chan Ze Han on for the roulette. Alpar for his part kept faith with the eleven that had brought the club thus far, and it was difficult to tell who was the more correct, for a time. Neither
Fu Wenlong nor Fred Cui gave the custodians any chance with their opening takes, serving warning that this could take awhile to decide.
Germanakos was up next for Grilled, and one might have wondered what a 36 year-old reserve goalkeeper was doing there... right up until he coolly whammed it into the top left corner, despite Obrajero going the right way. Francisco Marciano had evidently not been discouraged by his earlier failed gamble as he shocked with a rabona, after which he made pains to rouse his teammates to some success.
The third kick had
Radomil Marcol step up himself, and facing penalties evidently equips one to take them too, from his no-nonsense delivery to the bottom right. Abd Jamil Wardi was not to be intimidated as he psyched Marcol out next, waiting for the goalie to commit first before flicking it home. Grilled skipper
Genki Nagano went fourth and powered it to the same bottom right corner, before Obrajero got his own back against Marcol by brushing it in at his left post.
It was sudden death now, and
Johann Schwietzer took his time placing the ball on the spot, carrying what must be an entirely unfair burden for a player making his official debut. Time slowed to a crawl as the referee approached to hurry him up, only to be waved aside. The run-up was neither short nor long, and the strike was technically flawless, with Obrajero flying towards the grounder bound for his bottom right corner for a third time, but always a fraction too late.
That left Liu Wenpeng to keep Legends in the tournament, and if Alpar had to choose a man to shoulder this responsibility, surely it had to be this veteran, who had scored nine times in the cup thus far? And indeed, Liu had always been a force for stability, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his textbook strike to the bottom left either. Nothing, that was, other than that
Radomil Marcol had totally committed to the dive, and stopped it with a big right palm.
