Sunset In Sentoza
Hein, Genki Closeout
It had been four seasons since Grilled Birds last met Marina Sailors in league competition, and nineteen since they clashed in the quarterfinals of the Birds' bid for a second Singapore Cup defence. The scoreline had only widened over time, though, as Grilled pulled out a clear 5-1 win to advance to the fifth round of the latest edition at Sentoza Springboks' stadium.
The Sailors' Mexican head coach Roberto Rius had been appointed not long after their previous 1-4 home defeat, which saw them in a counterattacking 5-2-3 that saw only Bulgarian youngster Tatos Karapetyan - now at Uruguay's Lombok 91 - grab a consolation goal. Swedish lynchpin Mario Gustavsson got another go after heading a doomed rearguard mission then, this time flanked by Matías Martínez and former national U-20 midfielder Li Jie Meng. Li An Chuan, Mohd Akmal Hizam Khairul Hakim and Phua Yau Jia also made their return in the backline, with Finnish goalkeeper signing Johannes Vuolle starting over the recently-departed Antonio Caro, having won his last five games for Marina Sailors.
There were few surprises from the Birds in their yellow away kit, other than
Hwang Teck Fu being rested. This had
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Lim An Keng go into attack partnering
Chia Kwang Tse, as
Hisham Zubari got the nod in central midfield.
Wu Ping De returned on the left flank, and did not take long to counter whispers that he was becoming the kind of luxury winger that had plagued the Birds so frequently in their history. He drifted across to the right side in the sixth minute, and Phua Yau Jia was outnumbered as Wu pulled back inside to redirect a dinky Chia pass beyond Vuolle.
That looked almost too simple, but the Sailors support would not be down for long at all, as their team would be roused to reply in full force from kick-off. Mario Gustavsson bypassed the midfield to set Swiss target man Ralf Weisner up within half a minute, and the latter wasn't far away at all, with a strike that grazed the crossbar. Alas,
Radomil Marcol's quick throw out sent
Phillip Nagata on his way unimpeded, and the Sailors team couldn't fall back fast enough to stop the first-moving
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko from another low-difficulty conversion in front of their goal.
0-2 down after eight minutes did not reflect the balance on the pitch, but it would unavoidably adversely affect Marina Sailors' approach. Now understandably wary of venturing upfield, they yielded too much initiative to the Birds, and were probably fortunate not to end the half further behind.
Lim An Keng crashed a daisycutter hard into the upright in the seventeenth minute out of nowhere, and Vuolle paid his dues with a big right hand against
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko's flying header, after thirty minutes.
If the Sailors trooped off the field less upbeat than usual, they came out back like their normal selves, with whatever Roberto Rius said to them in the dressing room likely having the intended effect. The first fifteen minutes of the second half belonged mostly to them, with Matías Martínez showing excellent playmaking ability; a well-worked swing reversing up the left side saw Israeli winger Bilal Abou Hamed nearly replicating Wu's opener, but for a poor finish right at Marcol.
This had Rius instructing Mohd Akmal Hizam Khairul Hakim to push up more on the right side, after which fullback Mohammad Zainal Khairul Azhar was taken off for Finnish support forward Ville Vähäsantanen. If this was supposed to create more chances for the Sailors, however, there were few signs of it working at first. Instead, it was
Wu Ping De who took advantage of the opposition's leaving space behind, but it just wasn't
Lim An Keng's day as Vuolle pulled off yet another fingertip save off his screamer from ten yards.
Marina Sailors gradually grew into their 3-5-2 configuration, though, and it was the Birds who were finding themselves in trouble. Spanish captain Ijinio Nolla was only barely held off by a desperate sliding clearance from
Johann Schwietzer in the 75th minute, that could so easily have gone horribly wrong. The Sailors' reducer would arrive four minutes later from an authoritative Nolla header, after
Genki Nagano's incredible recovery against Mario Gustavsson's sprint that however failed to get the ball away far enough.
A one-goal deficit with some ten minutes remaining was very much in rescue territory for Marina Sailors, but it transpired that they had overexerted themselves in getting this far. Grilled Birds had reserves in spades, and found the Sailors unable to keep up once they began to stretch the play in earnest. It was soon back to a two-goal lead after
Genki Nagano made a spectacular volley off Wu's 83rd minute cross, that
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko matched three minutes later with
Phillip Nagata delivering from the other wing.
Even the most fervent of the Sailors fans recognized that they were done after that, but Grilled were not finished yet; they were riding on a high as they switched to entertainment mode as stoppage time loomed, and this brought a fifth goal and rare brace for
Genki Nagano late on, as the Birds skipper shot from the edge of the penalty area with the full support of the Birds crowd. Johannes Vuolle got a touch, but couldn't prevent it from nestling in his bottom right corner.
