Tomoto Squashed
Simon Overkill
With their S-League ambitions in shambles, Grilled let vent on leading Divison Three club Tomoto fruit in the seventh round of the Singapore Cup. Tomoto had entertained with their competitive midfield and all-out attacking style in their past games, but they inexplicably rested several starters against Grilled and paid the price for it.
Despite that, Tomoto resisted Grilled for a long stretch, with some help from the elements. van Liere should have put Grilled in front very early on as Han Kok got the ball to him, but the ball slowing down on the wet surface caused van Liere to swing at air and gave Tshisevhe enough time to hack it to safety.
van Liere didn't miss when his next chance came in the 26th minute, with some twisting and turning opening up enough legroom for him to smash one to the bottom corner. Simon got only his second goal of the season with a classy lift of the ball over Vietnamese goalkeeper Leo Yi-Heng, and led to Tomoto's South African central defender Mjayelwa Tshisevhe putting his back out trying to chase down that volley.
Since it appeared that some miscommunication led to the hosts not registering any substitutes for the match, Tomoto were forced to play on without a fullback, which was an open invitation for Grilled to pour forward. Simon got another in a hurry, while
Fabian Bona chipped in with a cleverly placed curler before half-time.
Sid's free-kick passed through the wall and gave Yi-Heng little chance in the 57th minute, and Grilled began to slow the game down significantly with five goals in the bag. Unfortunately that appears to be a cue for injuries nowadays, and the Grilled bench was seen to collectively heave a sigh of relief when van Liere danced out of an Assi Damti sliding tackle in time. Damti still got booked, though.
Just when it seemed that Grilled were going to pocket the win without further incident, team captain
Ahmed Abed-Sulaiman pulled up awkwardly after blasting a goal kick up into the evening sky, and sat down after a few painful hops. In the end, Bao-Tam took over the gloves, while senior midfielder Kek-Tjiang received the armband.
Grilled gave attacking another go and duly made it six-nil through more slick finishing by Bona, but then Jie Siong, in a wide midfield position, staggered over the sidelines after getting a boot into his knee just above the shinpads. The referee had missed that one, and Grilled had no recourse but to put
Allan Ødegaard on for him.
The match appeared to be catching up on missing incidents, and Spirig knocked in an eighth against an increasingly disinterested defence. Tomoto then suffered their own share of misfortune, with their star ex-U-20 midfielder Song Wan-Fang and their only bright spark for the day hurting himself after an acrobatic kick.
Now left with nine men for injury time, Tomoto leaked two final goals, first to the energetic substitute Ødegaard who simply burst past all comers, and lastly to Simon who thus rounded off his eighth career hat-trick.
