Rolling On
No Answer
The Birds crashed out to a convincing Rollin' Thunder side, as they never looked likely to score with van Liere well shackled and Subri almost lethargic. Two first-half goals shared by Rollin's strike partnership of Hilco Pinto and Kevin Montes left Grilled with too much to do, and a third added by Mak Sze Wai in an otherwise uneventful second half erased any lingering hopes.
After so many matches of utilizing van Liere as their main attacking outlet, Alcántara appeared to finally acknowledge van Liere's role officially, as evidenced by the inevitable transferring of the ball to him on the right side. The Dutchman did have an electric start, and probably only the double-team of Iskandar Zulkernain and Ma Yu-pei kept him from shocking ex-U20 goalie Wang Wai-Kit with a flawless bicycle kick.
Having dropped Talib to accomodate Kek-Tjiang as a hybrid defensive midfielder/offensive defender though, Grilled' backline looked thin at times, and the tall Hilco Pinto stormed in behind Bona to knock in his hundredth career goal from a floated Giovagnoli cross.
Grilled were too often forced on the back foot as Subri could hardly hold the ball up when it was given to him, and in the 24th minute Rollin' made it two. Spanish striker Kevin Montes was played onside by Bona, who was not having the best of matches, and was picked out quickly by Beng-Teck in midfield. The unhesitating first-time grounder by Montes went straight across goal to land inside the far post.
Grilled's performance was turning out to be a disappointment for a Cup semi-final, as their play could at most be charitably said to be workmanlike. Despite the fact that more than half the first eleven had two Cup winners medals under their belt, they struggled to raise their game to any real extent. van Liere was the only player who did himself justice, but his mazy solo runs brought no reward at the end.
It got even harder to watch for the Grilled support when Mak Sze Wai breezed in totally unmarked after some neat one-twos from the Rollin' midfield, and quite a few left their seats when Sulaiman failed to parry Mak's solid strike enough to keep it out of his net.
