Curse Continues
Cooked At The Pot
Grilled have to wait some more for their home league hex to be lifted, as they did all the right things but could not overcome the visiting Changi Genius, who found great success down the left side. For all of the Birds' enterprise, their goals would come from a corner kick and two flashes of individual brilliance, leaving embattled head coach
Han Lik-Tsun shaking his head in the dugout.
Han had boldly pledged a win for the supporters, and in response some fifty-odd thousand of them turned up to receive their dues. Grilled's forwards were eager to test out backup goalkeeper Lasse Nessgård with some slightly ridiculous efforts from range, when they might have been better served moving the ball closer.
The injury bug then hit Grilled, as
Alex Fonseca, who had been doing very nicely up to this point, pulled up heavily midway through the half with a thigh strain. A few minutes on the sidelines convinced him that he couldn't continue, which allowed
Edvaldo Mourão to taste his first substantial league action since the match at BDSM FC two seasons ago.
This showed as he struggled to get on the same wavelength as Changchun and Djekshenkulov, who had been relying on the vastly more experience Fonseca to call the shots. Bereft of creativity, Grilled were reduced to knocking the ball around aimlessly when they had it, up till the 39th minute when Jesús Salinas Mila powered through on the left to put Changi up.
Grilled had barely recovered from the shock when Mohd Akmal Hizam bin Ismail repeated the trick, to the apocalyptic fury of
Dexter Stacey, who summoned
Slavcho Tzonkov to give him a piece of his mind. Tzonkov was unappreciative, and was seen to gesture that Stacey himself had been slow to come out.
Happily, this internal discord was shelved as Mohd Safri chased down a speculative lob over the top from kick-off and won a corner, from which
Paolo Iten delivered accurately to substitute Mourão in the middle of the box. The Portuguese barely caught it with the top of his head, but that was enough to send the ball creeping in at the post after a single bounce.
That did not fix Grilled's awkwardness in midfield, though, and the department spent the following time mostly trying to get to know each other. Changi Genius held out handily, and Rãzvan Georgescu's entry in the 70th minute for Mugurel Rusanu supplied them with yet another goal from the flanks, with
Lin Jungui failing this time failing to cut out a low cross.
The fans to their credit were not too affected, probably because they had gotten used to scenes like this. Han considered his options and elected to shout at his charges to attack, and skipper
Gleb Dorogan stood up for the second match in a row, putting a though pass expertly between two defenders and into the path of
Tian Yonghang, who only had to meet it with his boot.
However, Per Nessholt again exploited Grilled's weak right defence to restore Changi's cushion as Grilled pushed for the equaliser, which left
Chow Ying Lee no choice but to go for the most basic hit-and-chase stratagem, taking on the 34 year-old Megat Amir Faisal bin Zainal. He did get the better of his national U-20 senior, thanks to an explosive first step, and finished past Nessgård to raise Grilled hopes.
Nothing would come of it sadly as the Birds ran out of time, and the visitors had the last thrust, leaving Stacey to deny Mohd Akmal Hizam a second goal by his fingertips.