What Comes Around
Full Circle
Nineteen years separated this Singapore Cup final from Grilled Birds' fourth and latest 6-5 victory, and it would be Bot Team FC to take it home this time. Even the most blinkered Birds fan could hardly deny that they deserved it, even as Grilled played above themselves to keep the lead at half-time, and run the Bots very, very close.
The clubs had entered the match with high-profile late buys, as Bot Team FC recruited 32 year-old Dutch custodian Danny Nooitmeer from Suriname II.4 side Colonia Maximus, as their stand-in for Fausto Paula - who had been cleared for the bench.
Jerome Crawford captained the Birds out on his debut, looking every bit entitled to the armband and the stage. It would be a head-on collision of two 2-5-3 systems with nothing held in reserve, the winner to be decided on firepower by mutual consent.
Kevin Zhang won the toss with young Mexican referee José Iván Báez urging a good, clean game, advice that the players appeared to heed. Conditions were near-perfect for football, unlike some of the fixtures in previous rounds, which enabled the teams to express their art. The balance gradually tilted the Bots' way as what had been hailed as the finest midfield in local football dug in, and their first real chance would come good as Mohd Hazmi Mohd Bukhari came inside in the tenth minute - and took it past both
Ananda Hettiarachchi and
Johann Schwietzer with the Bots' forwards otherwise occupying the Birds.
That had many of the Grilled followers bury their faces in their hands, although after their side had come back from three goals down to qualify in the first place, hope remained spring to an extent. A straight-up contest had looked to favour the Bots, who had just that bit more experience, but nobody informed
Phillip Nagata. The right winger swopped positions with Ananda on a wild dribble, and his sudden stop threw Yip Wee Aik marginally off, which was all he needed to slam the equalizer past Nooitmeer in the sixteenth minute.
The loss of their early lead seemed to shake Bot Team FC somewhat, and they were uncharacteristically shaky on the restart, with Swiss forward Vittorio Rubagotti even losing the ball to
Hwang Teck Fu seconds after kick-off. The Birds knew how to attack uncertainty if nothing else, and Nagata contested Hwang's through ball against Leong Aik Min - and won. It felt as though the entire stadium was screaming now as Nagata sought the loose ball with several defenders converging on him, only to locate it and prod it over the line just in time.
The unlikely 2-1 lead might even have been three just a minute later, but
Wu Ping De plonked it off the far post, having carved his own way into the box from the left side. What was winding up to be a technical exercise in midfield control by the Bots had become a free-for-all, and
Radomil Marcol gallantly blocked Rubagotti's full-on strike in the 23rd minute, to launch a direct counter. This time, Wu made sure to keep it on target, and his drive skipped past an unfortunate Nooitmeer on the last bounce.
It all seemed to be going Grilled Birds' way at this point, but Alstani surely had a keen sense of irony, as he vocally tried to keep his team from falling victim to the same malady that had plagued the Legends last week. Alas, the message would not get through in time, but from the incisiveness of the Bots' response, it was questionable if it would have mattered. Crawford would be stumped for once by Andrew Long's weaving dribble, and Marcol was a step slow in going for the buttery-smooth onside pass. Lau Loong Long got a lightning-quick right boot in first, taking it around the oncoming goalie.
Genki Nagano technically got the final touch as he slid in, but the match officials rightly credited Lau with the goal.
Grilled Birds however remained in a better position than their general play would have suggested, at the end of the first half; and from the expressions on their players' faces, they knew it too. The match resumed with Bot Team FC very much in the driving seat, as Grilled found out just why their midfielders had been called by by the national side so often.
Jerome Crawford's purchase looked like a masterstroke at times, as he exuded a calming influence that the Birds needed more than anything else.
All of Crawford's experience could not prevent the Bots from churning out the odd big chance, however, as they imposed their will on the game. They were definitely the more dynamic side in mixing up the direction of attacks, and Matthew Hong pulled past a dogged
Wu Ping De to dip a vicious cross into the Birds penalty area, after 52 minutes. A great roar went up as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul missed the interception and it fell to Kevin Zhang, who sadly might have done much better with less time to think.
That was the Bots' biggest opportunity since Lau's reducer, and the next ten minutes did not bode well for their cause, for all their possession. Grilled were not threatening all too much, but
Lim An Keng's surge forward after 57 minutes had Yip Wee Aik collapsing and clutching his left hamstring, having evidently torn it in the process of boxing the Grilled striker out. Bot Team FC's medics wasted no time in requesting a replacement upon cursory examination, and Wilm Helmers entered as their first substitution.
Bot Team FC retained the initiative, as the Birds were unable to respond to Crawford's persistent attempts to have them drag the play out. As such, the Bots would soon concentrate their attention on Hong's right wing, what with Massimo Francalanci making
Genki Nagano appear quite shaky. A first promising advance was cleared for a corner in the 62nd minute, but the Bots kept at it, and were rewarded by Mohd Hazmi Mohd Bukhari's unstoppable hit some six minutes later.
The 33 year-old Mohd Hazmi had often been in the shadow of his more-illustrious teammates, but not today as his name was sung by the Bots legion of supporters, having gotten them back into real contention. Grilled were facing a Bots side at their magnificent best about now, and there was no containing them in full flight. Italian boss Fabio Trasferti was on his feet, and soon jumping for joy as Kevin Zhang threw
Johann Schwietzer off in the 74th minute, and put them ahead for the first time!
Grilled Birds were hardly about to concede just yet, not with the memory of Legends' last-gasp saving of their day so fresh in the mind, and in any case there was nothing for it but to force their way forward.
Chia Kwang Tse appeared to have lost out when
Lim An Keng seemingly overhit his pass to the back post, but he somehow influenced Helmers to put it behind for safety. Not quite as it turned out, by the way, as
Jerome Crawford whipped the corner hard into the box - with Chia in exactly the right place to equalize.
Unfortunately, the revelry at the corner flag was probably not to Grilled's benefit, as they were too slow to react to Bot Team FC's own heedless rush from kick-off. Rubagotti would not be shy about taking on risk as he made a blind flick on Kevin Zhang's through ball, which was just what was needed to release Thierry Henry for the winner. António Nobre Couto replaced Massimo Francalanci with a view towards holding the ball up, and by the time
Hisham Zubari raced on for Ananda, it was all over bar four disjointed minutes of stoppage time.
