Daring Daud
Birds Wait
Al-Daud displayed their ambitions by mastering Grilled 2-4 despite being at The Cooking Pot, in doing so being one of the handful of teams to beat the Birds in a derby game. While the fixture might not have had the resonance of one in the S-League, tribal loyalties still ran strong, and attracted over 72000 to the stadium.
Grilled would take the title with a result against the newly promoted Al-Daud, but the opponents were far sterner than when they fell to four Rotteveel goals at the beginning of the season. There was no indication that they could halt Grilled's march for much of the first half, however, with Huihong in particular running riot as he sought a first-team place.
It was down to the duo of Jianyong and Darong to grab Grilled's opener, and the two confused all defenders who attempted to halt them down the left side. This left a huge gap open in the middle of the park, through which Han Kok raced through and sent the ball forward to Branbilla, who in turn got it under the goalie.
Al-Daud had their moments, with Borut Povh almost breaking free after 27 minutes. The recovery speed of Darong bailed the home team out there, and he confidently brought the ball up before angling a delightful ball over forty metres for Han Kok, who matched it with a majestic volley for 2-0.
Just when it looked as though Grilled were cruising to the title, Al-Daud made it game on again, with veteran French midfielder Omer Bourguignon spot on with his effort. The recent signing from Pariis Saint Germain had been very good for the visitors in the middle, and was worth every penny of his S$2.5 million signing fee.
Grilled were still very much the favorites, but all that changed in the second half as Al-Daud began to turn the screws; their powerful strikeforce caused mayhem in the Grilled defence in the 54th minute, leaving Gonzalez to swoop in and tap the ball past a lonely Valdir.
A draw would still do Grilled much more good than Al-Daud, but the nervous home fans could see that their heroes were losing their hold on the game.
Han Lik-Tsun slid in despairingly after Driekus Coenegracht lost his marker in the 70th minute, but was too late to to stop the Dutchman from getting a solid strike off. The ball skipped off the ground just past Valdir, giving Al-Daud the lead.
Grilled now had to attack to salvage a point, but were themselves caught out as their wingbacks lost their positional discipline. Valdir kept Grilled in it after Abregu appeared destined to score, but even he could not prevent Giorgio Cantarini from putting the ball in from seven yards out, thus extending the title race by one week at least.
