Samurais Lost
Lee's Bushido
Young Grilled local midfielder
Lee Jie Siong showed his warrior spirit in the friendly against New Zealand's Lost Samurais, as he played through the pain barrier and nearly scored after badly pulling a tendon in only the third minute. The injury was inflicted by Finnish winger Janne Saarelainen, who accepted his caution for the horrific tackle readily enough.
Lee was still limping when he chipped the ball just outside the left post in the fifth minute, but was back to his all-action best soon thereafter, with only the occassional grimace betraying the discomfort he was in. The hosts were not about to tone down their play, and Nicolás Amalfitani also got booked for an ill-tempered trip that broke Chuan Jing's shinguard strap.
The Samurais' robust gameplan would come back to haunt them, as speedy but slight Thai centerback Arthit Thepmanee got his left foot caught in the muddy turf in the 28th minute while lunging towards Hjortlind. The swelling was rather large, and after some deliberations the homegrown Ethan Chantrey was substituted in for Thepmanee.
That was hardly the end of the Samurais' antics, and soon their other central defender Clyde Blanchett was carded for doing a half-baked rugby block on bin Yaacob. Some of Grilled's less experienced lads were about to lose their cool at the Samurais' perceived roughhouse tactics, but were advised by Sulaiman and Alcántara to remain controlled.
Grilled reaped the rewards of their patience in the 53rd minute, when Noel Svangren was too eager to tackle, allowing Ødegaard to read his move well before it was executed. Ødegaard had a free run on goal after hopping past Svangren's slide, and managed to squeeze the ball between Samuel Carlsson and his near post with the outside of his boot.
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob increased Grilled's lead by materializing behind Chantrey to nick the ball two minutes later, and was uncatchable as he sped straight towards Carlsson. bin Yaacob released his shot at the last possible moment for to make it two for the visitors.
Carlsson had to save brilliantly from Ødegaard as the Samurais appeared to lose their direction for a period, but they were back with their biting challenges soon enough.
Qiu Swee Pheng couldn't stand up to a ferocious but legal shoulder charge in the 70th minute, and fell stiffly on his butt. That had him in agony for some moments, but like Jie Siong, Qiu chose to continue courageously.
Matters finally came to a head in the 75th minute when Svangren came raging out of defence for little discernable reason and collided heavily with Hjortlind in the centre circle. This appeared to have been influenced by some words exchanged between the two some moments before, and it nearly escalated into a brawl as some other Grilled players had also run out of patience. Only the intervention of coaching staff prevented a fight, and the game was resumed ten minutes later
sans Svangren. There wasn't much to look forward to in the predictably bad-tempered finish, though.
