Fully Grounded
Puri Overpushed
The Birds appeared to have gone down a notch in their trip to Ground Zero, but this remained sufficient for them to claim a three-goal victory against Batok Earthquakes. This was perhaps not unwarranted from how the hosts had lost seven of their previous nine league matches this season, with their only goal since the third week moreover coming against West Merlions in their sole victory, thanks to Khemera Luu's free-kick prowess.
Luu would be on the right wing of a 5-4-1 today, with Earthquakes boss Lokmalhakim bin Abu Shah having moved on to blooding youngsters. Zyad Khabbaza would be on the bench after making his league debut against the Birds in a 0-4 loss a month ago, but today would see both Adam Upper and Yahyah Ajwad start in midfield - with the latter further kicking off his professional career today, after playing out a goalless draw at Uruguay Division Two club Nueva Conquista some four days ago.
The Birds needed the points and were unable to reciprocate, though, with
Dan Alstani fielding a near full-strength side that had
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Lim An Keng either side of
Hwang Teck Fu in attack.
Hisham Zubari returned to central midfield with the experiment of pairing him with
Jerome Crawford not ending particularly well, but it was not as if that would likely have made a difference against what was essentially an U-20 engine room.
The home fans were certainly undaunted as
Lim An Keng converted a
Hisham Zubari diagonal pass across the box in the seventh minute to put Grilled ahead, having endured much of the same over the past months. The Birds would hold the ball almost at will with Lokmalhakim staying with his counterattacking philosophy, even if there would be scant evidence of it coming off. Lim nearly added another five minutes after his first, but this time Loh Huat Woon knocked it off the goalline with the curler having gone past Marco Raimondo.
Yahyah Ajwad was having some trouble keeping up, and he didn't pull out of a challenge against
Radomil Marcol in the 19th minute in an attempt to compensate - and was lucky not to be sent off. Marcol would have
Genki Nagano take his next few goal kicks as his right foot recuperated, one of which got to
Chia Kwang Tse, who couldn't finish. Earthquakes remained patient in their build-up, but this was to their detriment as Chew Aik Keong dallied for too long in the 36th minute. Hwang pressured him into a sloppy backpass, that
Mohd Marzuki Khairul caught up with for 2-0.
It only got worse for Ajwad, who was utterly mesmerised by
Hisham Zubari's footwork a couple of minutes later. The visiting fans were not about to miss out on rubbing it in, but Zubari probably shot from too far out, and bent it several yards wide of the far post. Raimondo pumped the goal kick upfield within seconds thanks to a helpful ball-boy, and Adam Upper nearly had the home fans jumping, as he cracked a stunner onto the crossbar. Loh Huat Woon fought his way towards the rebound, only to be booked for blocking
Ananda Hettiarachchi off too far from the ball.
That gave the Earthquakes supporters some hope for the second half, but their expectations were to be dashed as Grilled Birds controlled the pace more than ever before. They were pretty solid on defence, which had
Chia Kwang Tse resort to a desperate lob in the 53rd minute, after being driven back outside by the attentive Kuval Puri. The element of surprise caught Raimondo out of position... but Quek Pin Ze was there to head it off the line.
Grilled kept on pressing all along the breadth of the field, with increasingly more of the action going
Phillip Nagata's way on the right flank. Finnish fullback Niko Antikainen would mostly keep the Birds winger from getting really deep, but the Earthquakes didn't count on
Johann Schwietzer pushing upfield in the 66th minute. Just as against frunzelax, this had the opponents uncertain about who was to track him, and the Swiss defender duly dodged behind to polish Nagata's timely assist off.
Schwietzer was then off for
Jerome Crawford several minutes later with
Dan Alstani wanting to keep his new buy in practice, and he would indeed strike an improved balance with
Hisham Zubari in midfield by deferring the offense to the latter. The Birds' Number Three would not disappoint as he slashed past Khemera Luu on the inside in the 73rd minute, but the final ball to
Lim An Keng wasn't the best, and was snatched at in a narrow miss.
National youth prospect Kuval Puri would not finish the match, as he caught a stray elbow by
Mohd Marzuki Khairul with eleven minutes remaining. Palestine trainee Zyad Khabbaza ran on after exchanging a fistbump with Puri, though the flow swiftly turned the Birds way as the free-kick was well-defended. Alas,
Chia Kwang Tse misjudged
Wu Ping De's inbound cross, and put in a weak header despite having all the time he needed.
