Wingless Wonder
Quah Doubles Down
Grilled gave
Hidde van Liere a rest and opted for a tight midfield five with Han Kok and Spirig cutting in at every opportunity, and it paid off brilliantly against a defensive travelling RaZer side. The visitors were coordinated at the back and might well have held on to enter the tunnel on level terms at half-time, but were instead stunned by a late Grilled blitz that saw them three goals behind at the break instead.
After the 1-3 home defeat last week, RaZer appeared to be conservatively angling for a point at Grilled's Cooking Pot, as their players frustrated Grilled's attacking efforts by sticking a well-timed foot in whenever possible. This did little for their own offensive mentality however, and much of the first-half probably wouldn't get a second look by neutral fans.
It seemed as if
Maikel Rotteveel would be the one to break the deadlock when he masked his run well to sneak in between RaZer's central defensive pairing of Feuchter and Patel. Patel's last-gasp sliding block took enough off the strike for Jiao-Long to heave it a long way out, though.
A missed ugly lunge by
Nawaz Talib on Tsu-Yee saw the Pakistani booked, but the resulting free-kick was caught easily by Valdir. A monster goal kick that landed just outside the opposition box followed, and in the jostling for the resulting header the unfortunate Feuchter saw the ball dance off his left upper arm.
The harsh but correct decision was made, and Sid tapped the penalty one way while Jiao-Long went the other to give Grilled something to defend. That proved the catalyst for a resurgence in confidence for Grilled, and on their very next attack Subri was sent clear by Jie Siong. The Malaysian striker hit a grounder inside the far post to make it two.
A third followed as Han Kok made Tellbrant look like he was standing still with an outrageous spurt of acceleration from a seemingly harmless position on the right wing. Several RaZer players tried to get back to head off his run, but were never going to arrive in time as Han Kok swerved smoothly out of Patel's sphere of influence and put the ball away neatly.
With the match more or less decided, the game again went into a bit of a torpor until the 76th minute when Han Kok experienced one of his old rushes of blood to the head. Unhappy at what he felt was unfair holding by Brandenberg to allow another RaZer player to win the ball, the temperamental midfielder stuck close to the Swiss, waiting for the ball to come to him, and when it did let loose a two-footed challenge designed as much to teach him a lesson as to take possession.
That was certainly grounds for a sending off as Han Kok was clearly unrepentant after felling his man, but after seeing that Brandenberg was unhurt the referee decided on a yellow card and a long talking-to instead. It was Quah's third booking of the season, though, and will see him sit out the Cup quarterfinal against Thorocozzieq FC on Wednesday.
As RaZer's defenders finally tired towards the end of a draining game, speed again proved supreme as first
Lorenz Paullin and then Han Kok simply sprinted strongly past the last men to knock goals in and lend a flattering look to the scoreline. Sid could have made it six with a wondrous volley that looped over Jiao-Long, but it landed on top of the goal netting in the end.