Rinse Of Whales
Rinor Whitewash
The previous finals walkover sure did the Birds a world of good, going by how comprehensively they suppressed Palestine challengers The Killing Whales. The Hebron offshoot of Dutch club De Orca's hunkered down to fish for another low-scoring win, but didn't count on Grilled fitting all the pieces together, before pulling out the stops.
Grilled would be facing a five-strong backline with highly-rated 22 year-old goalie Murat Abolhassan El-Rusan directing them, with S$9 million Finnish sniper Roy Noroaho asked to find the goals.
Ang Leong Kum's return to action was the big news for the Birds, after his two-week layoff for personal reasons meshed into an ankle accident in a Ruby Challenger Cup run-out.
Ang went about his work as if he had never left, in a good sign for Grilled fans, as Whales suffered for their overly cynical approach. Noroaho could have been in a couple of times, as
Gene Filippone fumbled with his responsibilities, but his support staff were too far behind to feed him.
Another welcome returnee was
Wong Ping Shun, who hammered in just what the team had been missing against Batok Earthquakes on Sunday. Definitely looking happy to be back, Wong wound up overlapping on the left as Grilled's attackers drifted along the breadth of Whales' line, and cleaved a mighty strike in off El-Rusan's legs from a narrow angle.
The Birds would lock it up a little bit later, as one of
Rinor Isufi's many direct runs came off, before the right defence was again broken, this time by
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim. Moez Rahman and Muhammad Moin may have been making waves with the Bangladeshi U-20 side, but they were not covering themselves in glory against Grilled here.
Czech enforcer Adam Klíma did his best to fill the holes, but Whales' refusal to take risks ironically invited stress upon themselves. When they did get the ball, they inevitably slugged it towards the right for Israeli winger Refael Greenwald to contest, but the Birds wised to that quickly enough, and
Ang Leong Kum made it his job to cut the supply lines.
The Killing Whales pointedly refused to switch tack despite being three down, and Noroaho would eventually sling one from near the half-way line, just to keep
Wong Tian Han occupied. Grilled however were not prepared to rest on their laurels either, and both
Low Aik Jia and
Tian Yonghang would be booked for botched tackles early in the second half.
Rinor Isufi then put his stamp on the match, with a second dazzling solo goal in the 65th minute. Omer Yousif had actually been quite exceptional against Grilled's strikers, given the circumstances, but that would not be enough when Isufi found the ten yards he needed to accelerate. Murat Abolhassan El-Rusan made himself big, but Isufi cheekily drew him aside with a feinted finish, before skipping by.
There would then be a flurry of close shaves for the Palestine club, most notably among them a superb reflex save from El-Rusan that denied
Rinor Isufi his hat-trick, but the writing had always been on the wall.
