Filled Without Finesse
Birds Barge Through
Grilled got back on track with a free-scoring victory over league leaders The Void Deck, who found no recourse to the Birds' admittedly coarse strategy. Having witnessed how difficult how Void's long-distance sniping could be to handle,
Djan Bacelar's response was to not let them within range to begin with, and his players executed the all-over pressing game to the letter.
Unbeaten since opening day with this setup, Void could be excused for bravely taking the game to Grilled from the get-go. With the air of a team that were fully intent on staying on top, they challenged for every ball, and Frenchman Thibault Chauvin gave
Low Aik Jia a little warning with a tap on his ankles. Referee Luca Caniglia didn't appreciate that, however, and made his intention clear with a straight yellow card.
This had the visitors behaving more cautiously, and the Birds began to string passes about the midfield area. Slowly, they encroached on Void's penalty area, and after some false starts got their first success.
Wong Ping Shun played it back after dragging Iván Aldana to the corner flag with him, and
Ling Fuquan hit a magical first-time through ball for
Chow Ying Lee to sidefoot in.
Mario Loffredo was about to claim offside when he saw his teammate looking sheepishly back on the goalline, and settled for some words with his defence. Their age would however tell on Grilled's next full-on raid, as none of them could keep up to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim zigzagging his way inside to score the second.
The Void Deck did get a few on target this while, but their first true reply would come from much closer up. Grilled's offensive focus meant that they would always be vulnerable to true pace, and Paolo Lo Bartolo certainly had that in bags. Beating Ling in a footrace down the left, the Italian swung it low across the Grilled six-yard box, and Rudolf Harciník was on hand to clean up after
Wong Tian Han failed to cut it out.
This was mostly a departure from Grilled's suffocating attack, though, and Void were fortunate not to fall behind again when
Wong Ping Shun's excellent hammered free-kick nearly broke the crossbar. It was then the Birds' turn to heave a sigh of relief, after
Zhu Changchun's ugly two-footed tackle on Mariusz Ginko was missed completely by Caniglia.
After a long stretch of boredom in the second half, the Birds cemented their lead in the 59th minute, when
Tian Yonghang made it three of three from the forward line. The Void backline were uncertain of how to shut the classy dribbler down, and after the centrebacks finally decided to converge on him, Tian dismantled their efforts with a simple give-and-go.
Wong Ping Shun then barrelled a replay-worthy peach from wide right in the 64th, before Void were finally able to muster a reply. With their unbeaten run now looking exceedingly precarious, they abandoned their usual tactics for a gamble on flooding the Birds' box on a free-kick. This worked out in the end, as Antonio Gerardo Paoletti stood his ground against
Rashid bin Ahmad for long enough to scuff it past Wong.
Rashid, who had done fairly well in place of the injured
Gene Filippone, was replaced for the last ten minutes by
Clément Meyer as Bacelar aimed to see it out. Grilled looked safe after Void's greatest offensive threat Lo Bartolo had to be withdrawn after taking a knock, but were then undone by a rare corner kick. Disastrous marking meant that Mario Loffredo had a free header, and although Wong parried that, he was helpless when Ade Brown got a second bite at it.
Void were sensing that a lifeline had been thrown their way, and with five minutes left to protect their record, they went for broke. However, this also meant that they had to play dangerously high, and when
Wong Tian Han managed to get a quick clearance off, there was no-one who could quite catch
Low Aik Jia breaking down the middle to close it off.
