Bladed RaZer
Outright Disaster
There were hung heads aplenty at the filled to capacity Coliseum d'Hauts Esprits, and they belonged to a Grilled eleven who had chosen this time to turn in one of their poorest showings of the season. At the start, Grilled hopes were sky-high as they paraded the men who had earned the qualification match.
With the exception of Daniel Tellskär, Grilled had their strongest and best ready. Grilled were caught out by RaZer's knack of finding width, and the S-League 6th placed finisher gained the upper hand through Shen Mun-Nee's cross to long-time star midfielder Rickard Urbansson. Grilled were not put down by that, but two more goals in the next two minutes dissipated their fire considerably.
Thomas Tellbrant made
Hang Bao-Tam pick the ball out of his own net helplessly as he walloped a free-kick under the Grilled wall after Stanton created an off-the-ball incident, before overlapping to pass to a totally unmarked Petar Jozic for the Serbian international to run it into goal. A thouroughly demoralised Grilled team tried to respond to captain
Luis Alcántara's yelling to stem the tide, but it did not help matters that Alcántara floundered again at defending his own flank, as Tse Hyun-Shik drew him away for Urbansson to drift into the penalty box.
Lan Tuan-Mu made an effort to close him down, but Urbansson wove though and put it past Bao-Tam with the outside of his boot.
Grilled were out on a wing and a prayer now, and Stanton chipped in by putting pacy Swede midfielder Fredrik Swärdstrand out of the game with a flying tackle which also drew a lenient yellow. 18 year-old Zou Tsu-Yee filled his boots well, though fortunately for Grilled RaZer's offence had been broken down for the rest of the half as Tsu-Yee strove to connect with his more illustrious partners. Grilled's defence looked to have become accustomed to RaZer's wide raids, at the cost of the midfield being pressed downfield to hold the center. Hjortlind worked tirelessly but fruitlessly to win the ball over, while new signing
Ola Martinsson resided in solitude upfront with three defenders for company.
If Grilled had looked to the second half for salvation, Anders Anderhall rubbished those notions by converting what must be recognised as a freak goal, as Singapore U-20 midfielder Weng Shen's wishful lob fell on a damp spot on the pitch and refused to bounce. Anderhall was up in a flash to find the net as Tuan-Mu slid in late.
As if that was not enough for Grilled, perennial compulsive
Asher Stanton mistook Tse Hyun-Shik for one of his teammates in the 58th minute in a laughable episode, though in fairness he was pressed to pass the ball away. The winger made full use of his mistake by pushing it past Bao-Tam, who didn't even bother to dive this time, choosing instead to stare at Stanton with arms folded. It was a wonder that RaZer didn't push forward to turn the game into a total riot at this point, as Grilled's solidarity looked in serious trouble. Martinsson only then retreated to midfield to help out, and Grilled controlled the situation though numbers for a time.
The seemingly lungless Petar Jozic caused Dewilde massive headaches with his endless running, and Dewilde had little option but to bodycheck him in the 77th minute. Thomas Tellbrant laid off the indirect free kick to Anderhall who took a swing and allowed Bao-Tam to make his only good save of the night. The players were already staking positions for the corner when the referee decided that Kek-Tjiang had run out too early and ordered the free-kick retaken. Tellbrant obliged and made no mistake this time to collect his second dead-ball goal. With the rout in place, RaZer's fans responded energetically with lusty cheers, but Grilled clogged their area for the remaining minutes to cap the score at 7-0.
