Thundering Through
Playing Catch Up
Grilled have yet to get any change out of Rollin' Thunder, as they could not recover from a first-half hat-trick from lithe Finnish striker Juho Hiekka. Grilled's attempt to attack from wide positions didn't exactly pay off as Subri in particular kept getting into van Liere's way, but the Birds still managed three goals in the derby loss to keep their supporters mollified.
It was a bitter lesson for Grilled's new goalie
Valdir Dias Paes in his league debut, as he was taken to the cleaners by some very incisive running from Hiekka. Valdir could have pointed to the less-than-perfect cover afforded to him by Grilled's central defence, and it was probably Sid's slowness that led directly to the first goal - but ultimately some of the blame has to be borne by Valdir himself, a fact which he at least seems to recognize.
Grilled repeated their second-half shambles against Chemistry as their players kept coming in second-best to the hungrier home team, and Julio Jorge Giovagnoli was left unmarked when Lik-Tsun was confronted with a two-for-one overlap on the right. The tall Argentine had plenty of time to seek out Hiekka who was sprinting towards the far post, and while the Finn's header was solid Valdir should really have at least gotten a touch on it.
The Birds appeared deflated after defensive miscommunication gifted Hiekka his third, but Subri gave his team something to hope for after pulling one back out of nothing. He demonstrated that doggedness does pay off when he charged down Raja Azlan's long ball out of defence, got right onto the rebound and whipped it past Deng Wei-Ming.
Sid might have changed the tide of the game when he unleashed one of his wicked free-kicks, but this time it was too close to the middle and Deng didn't have too much trouble punching the ball safely over. An unfortunate clash of legs with Rotteveel put Iskandar Zulkernain bin Ahmad Mokshinon out of the game in the 36th minute, allowing tall Aussie, Inoke Parker, into the match.
Juho Hiekka cemented an outstanding performance just two minutes into the restart, when he burnt Lik-Tsun for genuine pace. Grilled's captain could only follow a couple of metres behind, and while Valdir got down to cover well Hiekka managed to chip across to the supporting Hilco Pinto, who walked the ball into an empty net.
Local midfield veteran Haji Jamal Nasir bin Saleh made it five when he harried the ball off Talib and lashed it past a by now red-faced Valdir. Rollin's decision to protect their lead then let Grilled correct the scoreline to a more respectable one, as MacKinnon drew gasps with a magnificent strike from almost thirty metres that bounced onto the line off the bottom of the crossbar and was then hastily hacked away.
Grilled's Swiss connection got a second for Grilled after the next few minutes of possession, with Spirig shuffling the ball away from a couple of Rollin' defenders before whacking in a low cross that Paullin was sharp enough to direct into goal. Rollin' striker Hilco Pinto then inspired a chorus of boos from the visiting contigent when he went through Talib from the back in an attempt to get the ball, an act for which he was fortunate to escape with a yellow card.
Rotteveel then went level with Sid on league goals as van Liere began to get into his element, with the shouted instructions in Dutch probably helping their coordination as Rotteveel just slipped the offside trap. The striker lifted the ball gracefully over Deng, but Grilled would get no closer as Rollin' tightened their ranks for their first S-League win in their history.
