Nibenit Nixed
Qiu Quick
Danish Division Five side FC Nibenit, wearing Grilled's usual green, slipped to a 0-2 defeat as left winger
Qiu Swee Pheng twice caught their central defenders napping. It could have been more, but
Ulf Hjortlind in particular missed a bagful of chances.
About five thousand souls turned up for the evening game, a good friendly turnout for a club which had dominated its Division Six league for the past two seasons. Kek-Tjiang made a rare midweek showing despite his exertions as a defender against Herron mere days ago, and was a class apart as he made the middle of the park his own.
Hjortlind had the first crack at goal when a timely backheel by Chuan Jing brought him face to face with Nibenit's goalie Bob Arendtsen, but the well-travelled Arendtsen parried Hjortlind's attempt to fool him at the near post. Esben Grønkjær, winding down his career after long spells in Switzerland and Poland, was downed by an uncompromising tackle by Sid in the eighth minute.
Despite protests from his comrades, Grilled continued play to the displeasure of the spectators, nearly making a goal out of it as well - Kek-Tjiang went airborne to meet a deflected pass, and planted a high-arcing strike just over the top right-hand corner of Nibenit's net.
Nibenit Rune Madsen and Bernard Beltman did very well in defence, but a moment's miscoordination between the two led to Grilled's opener. Harried by Bukhari, Beltman knocked the ball to where he expected his partner to be, unaware that Madsen was somewhat further away; The resulting chase for possession was won by bin Yaacob, who swept it into Swee Pheng's path for the winger to tuck away nicely.
Swee Pheng got his double in the 54th minute after similar pressure, as Arendtsen made an unwise short pass to his defense line. A scramble ensued that Hjortlind won, and again Swee Pheng made himself available, whizzing in from the left, to convert Hjortlind's unselfish assist.
Grilled should have added several more considering their absolute dominance in midfield, but were only able to craft out a diving header by Hjortlind with ten minutes remaining, as the match petered out to a stalemate in Nibenit's half.
