Grilled Birds 1 - 4
Haha Still No Joy
Gillot Through
Grilled Birds lost their fifth cup match in a row, and six in total, to S-League side Haha in today's Round of Sixteen game - that had to be a question of what could have been for Grilled. The memory of the previous quarterfinals still stung for many of the Birds players who took to the field today, even if there had been quite some turnover, with six of those no longer at the club. Belgian forward Tristan Gillot remained for Haha, however, and it was him who came up with another brace to put Grilled out.
Having won games against United Legends FC and Ambush F.C. entering the fixture, Haha remained a sight to behold, though 2-5 defeats to Sarcastic Fringeheads and CE Sindiket 07 suggested that they could be bested by good possession-based teams... which the Birds might consider themselves as sometimes. Italian head coach Antonio Abbruscato had his team come out in their usual 3-5-2 instead of dipping into a 4-4-2, indicating an intent to take the Birds on. Other than Gillot, they would lean on a local midfield of Ooi Ming Hock, Andy Wang and Cheong Chi Wen, the latter two 28 year-olds of which have improved by bounds since arriving in Woodlands.
Hisham Zubari got
Dan Alstani's vote of confidence for the match today, if not a sullen-looking
Wu Ping De, who was dropped in favour of
Mohd Marzuki Khairul on the left wing.
Hwang Teck Fu would not make the cut either, as Alstani went for
Chad Thach as his main striker, supported by
Lim An Keng and
Chia Kwang Tse. None of them would be much involved in the first few minutes as Haha circulated the ball in Grilled's half with ease, and
Radomil Marcol earned props with his great one-legged save against Andy Wang then.
If this was not the best of signs of things to come, Grilled did markedly get more assured after that near escape, with Zubari looking like fulfilling his reputation after winning a series of midfield battles. Actual output was harder to come by with Haha centerback Ooi Ming Chuan coordinating his side well, and Myanmar star
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko wasn't in a particularly good position, when he received the ball on the fringe of the penalty area in the 19th minute. Emboldened by his ongoing scoring streak, Hein would go for Gunārs Kļava's far top corner with a swerving lob... and found the target to make it four games in succession!
That made Hein Grilled Birds' man of the moment, definitely, but they would be let down by poor finishing - and bad lapses - for the rest of the half. If the Birds remained positive on the ball, Haha were always more than solid at the back, as when
Mohd Marzuki Khairul saw no good option but to let fly from nearly twenty yards in the 29th minute. It wasn't the worst of volleys, but was quite far from troubling Klava nonetheless.
Haha then equalised through a Tristan Gillot break-in after 40 minutes, with Marcol having had to block a prospective
Chad Thach back-headed own goal five minutes before. Grilled may have sensed the game slipping away from them at this point, as they absolutely tore at the opposition defensive line from the restart. Alas, Gunārs Kļava was too good, and after he bravely stopped Marzuki from sprinting past him with the ball, he somehow managed to recover in time to ward
Ananda Hettiarachchi's follow-up behind for a corner too.
The second half began with Haha again claiming the first-mover advantage, and it came off for them now. Grilled were trying, not always successfully, to compress play, and Haha were often granted far too much space when they got it out to the wings. Cypriot winger Dimitrakis Stavrou further found
Phillip Nagata an unwilling marker, and one of his several crosses from this period got to a charging Ooi Ming Hock, who held
Genki Nagano off to bulge the net with a powerful left-footed bomb.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko took matters into his own hands three minutes later, with a controversial hack at Stavrou on the touchline that caught the winger full on his left knee. Hein would immediately be surrounded by opposition players as Polish referee Adam Smakulski rushed in to maintain order, and the game would be paused for some minutes as Smakulski deliberated at the VAR station. He would ultimately decide to let Hein off with a yellow card, much to the Haha supporters' consternation.
The match resumed with Norwegian substitute Shafiq Khan coming on for Dimitrakis Stavrou, and on rather more even footing. Grilled understood that they were on a clock now, but found Haha to be extremely frustrating to break down. Chi Wen and Ming Hock had discovered that fine balance between sitting low and moving into space, and all the Birds could manage was a lay-back from
Chad Thach to
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, after all other avenues had been closed about the 61st minute. Marzuki gave his effort as good as he got, but it whizzed a yard too high with Maltese fullback Ivan Debrincat fast closing in.
It then got ugly for Grilled Birds, as Haha unleashed their second wind with some twenty minutes to go. They looked entirely in control then as they calmly passed the ball out of the Birds' attempted high press, and Ooi Ming Hock allowed a long delivery to run through to Shafiq Khan, taking
Ananda Hettiarachchi out of the conversation in the process. Khan raced through with Congolese wingback Fabrice Kasende very obviously calling for it from outside, but instead elected to cut in himself - and scored for 3-1.
The Birds dugout seemed to recognize that it was curtains despite the stony faces that they tried to put up after the initial reaction, and for all of
Hisham Zubari's hot-blooded dribbles trying to mess up Haha's organization, it was evident that they were not biting.
Chia Kwang Tse tried to barge his way inside in the 80th minute, only to be crowded out by Kasende and Ming Hock, after which Tristan Gillot slotted it past Marcol on the counter.
