Chem Lesson
Qin Quest
Newly crowned Singapore Cup winners Chemistry avenged their loss earlier in the season with a multidimensional performance at The Acidic City, as they built on a seldom-seen streak of two consecutive victories over Herron, who did however seal the S-League title by thumping mist.
It is clearly a superlative squad that could achieve such a feat, and Chemistry reminded the country just how powerful they have become by dismantling a dogged Grilled side. The Birds had little ambition other than to shut their hosts out, but Qin Caen-Khim made light work of that target by nudging Niklasson's intended shot past Abed-Sulaiman in just the third minute.
That however didn't open the match up as Grilled refused to be drawn out, and there were occassional boos from the impatient crowd as Grilled slowly ground Chemistry down with tight defending, and a legal tackle by Kek-Tjiang even got Mohamed El Boubakri substituted.
That didn't bring them any closer to getting anything out of the game, and Chemistry's patience came to fruition in the 66th minute when the genius of Yusman bin Salim took the entire Grilled defence unaware, and Eric Niklasson galloped in to hit a volley past Abed-Sulaiman.
The Grilled goalkeeper was called upon once more as a Chemistry corner was cleared only to captain Michael Bryant, who immediately forwarded it to Zong Kum-Leong; Abed-Sulaiman spotted that pass too, and bravely dove at Zong's feet to collect the ball.
Yusman would create one for himself later on as he swerved past Fredgård with breathtaking balance, while substitute Shahrulnizam Ladzim killed the match off in the 82nd minute with a flaming effort after a layoff from Železnik.