For The Fun Of It
Wu Delivers
Grilled Birds and Joker 9 entertained with a ten-goal bonanza at The Cooking Pot, seven of which went the way of the hosts - and made it much less close than their three latest meetings.
Wu Ping De was a revelation on the left as he continued to make his statement for more gametime, in recording his seventh career hat-trick in only his second league start of the season.
Joker 9 had emerged from their two-year vacation in the third division largely unchanged, with most of the familiar names from the previous clash at Aljunied Bridge returning. German veteran Hans-Ulrich Rehn was a notable exception, having left for Eintracht Remsede 09 back home, but this had to be more than made up for by Ariel Maceiras' recent double S$10.2 million swoop for wing pair Magnus Karlsen and David Larsen, both of who would feature here. Uruguay centreback Ariel Maceiras has however fallen out of favour with Maceiras switching to two at the back, which had Jiří Běloušek and Avelino Franco fill those roles alongside supposed defensive support from central midfield.
While this has not always worked out for the Jokers so far, it has been devastating whenever they clicked, as happened in the twelfth minute when former national youth forward Chan Jian Jian pushed
Genki Nagano to the brink. Genki finally put it behind, only for Chan to head Willie Yao's corner in anyway, after
Radomil Marcol misjudged the ball's flight. There would not be too much time for the Birds to brood, happily, as an on-form
Chad Thach swirled an equalizer past Jens-Harald Schimmelpfennig just two minutes later, from ten yards.
This was just according to established script for this fixture, as none of the spectators could have reasonably expected it to end goalless. It was just a matter of who would score more, and Grilled Birds put in their application first, with Schimmelpfennig doing great to deny
Hwang Teck Fu from getting past him in the 24th minute. There was no stopping
Wu Ping De's rocket off a magic
Johann Schwietzer defence-splitter two minutes on, however, and Hwang scored anyway shortly after that, as he kept the ball on the wrong side for Willie Yao to challenge.
It was the visitors' turn next, considering that they had never been too affected by going behind, and Young Lion Seif Hassaab acceded to the fans' wishes by distributing it often to Magnus Karlsen on the right touchline. The 26 year-old Norwegian definitely had the pace to threaten
Phillip Nagata, and his assistive skills were nothing to sniff at either, from how he threaded the cross precisely between
Johann Schwietzer and
Ananda Hettiarachchi for Tejas Gopalakrishnan to polish off. 3-2!
The first half concluded relatively quietly after a long stoppage for Chan Jian Jian to be examined, due to a horrific-looking tumble after being caught in mid-air by a teammate on a header attempt. The Jokers medical team were sprinting in almost as he hit the turf, and thankfully no significant damage was assessed. Raghuvaran Dalavai would warm up just in case, but would not be not called upon.
Joker 9 remained in a very good position to turn the tables with half the game to go, what with the 22 year-old Willie Yao holding his own against Grilled's much more experienced midfielders. The seventeen minutes after the restart would extinguish such thoughts, however, beginning with
Wu Ping De adding to the lead just three minutes in, flying by Avelino Franco on the inside.
Seif Hassaab bared his fangs a while later as Koh Wei Sze exhibited incredible balance to maintain his footing against
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko getting up close and personal, but
Radomil Marcol's goaltending won out by a shade. It was instead Wu to complete his treble in the 57th minute, with
Ananda Hettiarachchi gifting a sitter this time after feinting a pass to
Phillip Nagata on the outside.
The Jokers would not sit back - not that there was much reason to - despite being 2-6 down, and their most explosive minutes of the day would come immediately after this. Tay Fu Yew led a mass rush from the kick-off, and it was completed by Tejas Gopalakrishnan after a detour to Chan Jian Jian. Tay then went straight for the repeat with Chan's tricky running again having a concrete impact, but Marcol got a knee in the way to keep Joker 9 to three goals.
It might have gotten quite a little more suspenseful had Tay scored then, but Grilled dispensed with the drama by making it 7-3 four minutes later.
Johann Schwietzer had not wandered upfield much, but he made it count when he did, as he positioned himself perfectly for another visionary Ananda assist. The Grilled Number 48 then ended a productive day with a minute remaining, as
Hisham Zubari made a late appearance.
