Seven Times Proud
Quah Trebles
A close contest was expected between the two Singaporean club sides with the highest wage bills, but Grilled put their home advantage to good use as they overwhelmed East Coast promotees Arrogancae 7-2, thereby stopping their eight-match winning streak and handing them their first S-League defeat.
Arrogancae had made waves with their pre-season signing of current Macedonian national goalie Zmejko Nadzakov, who had represented his country more than a hundred times at all levels. Freerk Dorrepaal also drew attention to himself with a double to sink Team Singapore on opening day, and being a Dutchman with some pace, comparisms with Rotteveel were unavoidable.
The visitors decided to adopt a counterattacking gameplan for their trip to The Cooking Pot, though, and assembled in a 4-3-3 with just two inner midfielders, against Grilled's usual five in the middle. The idea was undoubtedly to absorb Grilled's strikes and return the favour on the break, but more than a few suspected that the off-form Walter Nidetzky and Kike Sales would be effective enough at the back for it to work. It turned out that they weren't.
Grilled took some time to discover that, though, as a fourth-minute breakthrough by Quah was followed by a sustained period of low productivity in the final third. Dorrepaal was quiet too, though, and it was left to another speedy Dutchman, the centreback Cornelus van Schie, to snap Grilled out of their stupor with a calm putback after a deserving lob by Miroslaw Dyla came back off the crossbar.
Subri took it upon himself to reply in the very next minute, in the process ending his worrying goal drought. Edmond was the creator with an accurate cross from the left touchline, and the winger was also responsible for the next one as he picked out an opportunistic Sid through a sea of players. Quah then drove a fourth in just before half-time to keep the Grilled faithful warm at the break.
Edmond's surges down the left and Quah's down the middle continued to be features of Grilled's game in the second half, as they simply continued with as Arrogancae had not managed to find an answer to it. Two more goals were yielded this way, as Edmond made a third assist with a well-timed cutback to Spirig, and Quah thumped his hat-trick goal into the top right corner to the increasing chagrin of Nadzakov, who had not exactly covered himself in glory.
Arrogancae then had a late second wind, but Miroslaw Dyla was wasteful after a superbly aimed knock-on by Nidetzky from a corner kick. With just Sid standing between him and a tap-in, the Polish winger fired into the air. Brazillian midfielder Luís André Silva Godói did beat his countryman Valdir with a silky chip after good work by Dyla down the right, but Rotteveel had the last word with a solid grounder for his 12th goal of the season so far.
