Legends Revenged
Hilal Overcomes
After two defeats to Grilled Birds this season, United Legends FC clinched the II.2 title with a 4-3 home win at Immortals, with the near-capacity attendance of over ninety-one thousand quite fitting for the occasion. Expectations were sky-high after a memorable Singapore Cup semifinals that was left undecided with five goals apiece at half-time, and Turkish head coach Nizami Alpar adapted with a 3-5-2 for today, after they had tried the 5-3-2 and 2-5-3 formations to no avail.
This had Toros Yönetmen and Agustín Pena reprise their striking roles, with 37 year-old Chinese veteran Liu Wenpeng having been eased out of the starting lineup from last month. Kuwaiti star Hilal Al-Hashmi thus started in the centre of their wide three-man backline, with Dutch skipper Luud Bezuyen tasked to take
Phillip Nagata on. Former Finnish U-20 midfielder Vilko Hovén moreover moved to left midfield, apparently to handle
Ananda Hettiarachchi head-on.
As for the Birds, they went for
Chia Kwang Tse as an inverted winger together with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul on the left, which meant that
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko and
Wu Ping De had to miss out despite good recent outings. The Legends were not interested in sitting back, to their fans' delight, given how they had torn Grilled apart early on in the semifinals. Their expansive play wouldn't have the intended effect today, however, and first blood went to the visitors as Ananda played
Mohd Marzuki Khairul through in the 21st minute on a slick flick for 1-0.
United Legends FC struck back from the restart, though, with Nicaraguan forward Agustín Pena again being their primary motive force.
Genki Nagano had not figured out how to constrain the tricky dribbler, which had him booked for taking Pena down after he had released his assist for the charging Francisco Marciano. Twelve minutes later, Genki was again embarassed as Pena stared him down, before beating him from a standing start and slotting it just past the grasp of
Radomil Marcol.
It was looking awfully familiar now as the Legends toyed with the Birds, who were very much being led by the nose at this stage. A rare bit of inspiration from
Hisham Zubari did open up a marginal chance for
Chad Thach in the 35th minute, but the forward hit it harmlessly wide under heavy pressure from Vilko Hovén. Two minutes later, it became 3-1 for the hosts, with nobody watching Luud Bezuyen as he drifted in from the left to crack a follow-up shot straight to the top corner.
Grilled's only consolation was that they had come back from worse in the semifinals, all the more as there were few signs of the tide turning. The Legends started the second half by far the more strongly, with a concerted push from the restart throwing the Grilled defence into total disarray. Toros Yönetmen should really have taken on the shot after creating the necessary yard of space against
Johann Schwietzer, but he spread it for the requesting Jonathon MacNoble instead - who duly thumped it hard against the foot of the left post.
The Scottish midfielder would not have much time remaining on the pitch, as it happened, due to going studs-up on
Chia Kwang Tse in a touchline battle for the ball. Although he narrowly missed Chia's knees, German assistant referee Felix Kammerl had seen enough, and a word to his Italian colleague Lorenzo Ventura would see MacNoble shown the red card. MacNoble made as if to protest, before thinking better of it, and marching off meekly.
Alpar would immediately reconfigure his team by pushing Hilal Al-Hashmi back into midfield, and having his now-back two rely on a high line. This risky maneuver did not appear to hamper the team's offensive power, with Toros Yönetmen soon wasting John Mackay's breakthrough on the right. The goal kick would be headed on by
Lim An Keng to
Hwang Teck Fu, and Mexican custodian Pastor Obrajero was lightning-fast in blocking Hwang's vicious volley, to much appreciation from the home set.
Grilled Birds were heating up, and under Zubari's direction, they started to make their man advantage count. After a patient series of passes designed to draw the Legends defence apart,
Genki Nagano took his chance and pumped a lob towards the opposition box. Several Birds players broke forward at the same time, and despite a partial clearance from Francisco Marciano that kept it from
Hwang Teck Fu, there was no stopping
Mohd Marzuki Khairul from completing his first league brace of the season.
Things got extremely interesting as Grilled Birds made it 3-3 several minutes later, after
Phillip Nagata's quality cross from the right wing was glanced home by
Chia Kwang Tse, as
Lim An Keng and Sven Hultner all but dragged each other down. Alas for the Birds, Hilal Al-Hashmi converted a textbook Umidshox Abduvorisov corner five minutes later, which was as far as Grilled got.
