Winners In Deed
Five Feed
II.3 runaway leaders Tanglin Winners tamed Grilled Birds as
Niculae Stanca's self-fulfilling prophecy came to pass, with his players barely putting up a resistance. While
Abdul bin Jantan and
Paolo Iten failed late fitness tests, that was still no excuse for the capitulation on display, as the entire team never managed to get off the ground.
It was always going to be an uphill battle against a Tanglin side coming off seven straight seasons in the ultra-competitive S-League, and there was a poise to their 4-5-1 that Grilled could only hope to emulate. Their backline had ballplayers aplenty, and rightback Angelo Giorgio Satta would soon showcase another of his skills with a charging header off an 18th minute corner, mowing
Shiya Shaahee out of the way in the process.
Things were still fairly even at this stage, with Tanglin sticking to their defence-first policy, but they were the more incisive whenever they turned on the offensive.
Chow Ying Lee ate a yellow card for holding up a free-kick with most of his teammates out of position, but that was not enough to keep Tanglin from doubling their lead before half-time, from another free-kick played short to Luigi Fanigliulo.
Dexter Stacey kept Grilled in it with an incredible fingertip stop off lone striker Carol-Alexandru Muntean's delightfully-crafted curler the very next minute, and it was a matter of survival for the Birds at that point. They began the second half more brightly, but Muntean would not be denied in the 50th minute as he came in from the left unchecked.
Shiya did have his moments as he was one of the few Grilled players to emerge with any credit at all, and crowning it was his unbelievable bit of skill to escape two markers right after Muntean's goal. However, none of his companions raised themselves to a similar level, and the Maldivian winger could only suffer in silence as contribution after contribution was wasted.
Grilled had given up by the 80th minute, as
Lin Jungui's careless free-kick came right off Loris Barlati's feet, after it had been awarded for the latter's high challenge. The Italian midfielder was off and away as Lin tried to appeal for obstruction, and beat Stacey from close up to make it 4-0.
The fifth arrived from yet another free-kick setup, with Arndt Herget the finisher this time, and a Muntean booking and
Alex Fonseca's one-man drive were the only highlights left in the one-sided affair.
