Tears At The Pot
Keystone Crumbled
What was the stage for a coronation became a morgue as a single act decided the title, as
Valdir Dias Paes' streak of 45 consecutive matches for Grilled came to an end early on against Rollin' Thunder.
Grilled were not shy about holding out for the needed point, and signalled their intentions with a defense-oriented 4-5-1, with Rotteveel under standing orders to eat up as much time as possible whenever he got the ball. The plan was clearly to force the visitors to chase the result, and hopefully overextend themselves.
The main man in this strategy was, of course, Grilled's Brazilian ex-U20 goalie
Valdir Dias Paes, who had lived up to his billing as Abed-Sulaiman's successor. It all went swimmingly for the first nineteen minutes, as Grilled held their lines, while Rollin' were cautious, which suited the hosts just fine.
This all changed after Valdir made what looked like a run-of-the-mill take from a corner kick, but got tangled up in a mass of bodies and hit the floor shoulder first. The goalkeeper heroically held on to the ball, but it was apparent by his thrashing about that serious damage had been done, and
Hang Bao-Tam had no choice but to slip on his gloves and play competitively for the first time in more than three seasons.
The substitute's rust soon told, as he came out flapping at the next corner kick, and only having MacKinnon standing at the post prevented João Carlos Batista from running it into the net. Bao-Tam was hopelessly out of his depth, sadly, and a tame-looking strike by former Holy Satans defender Iskandar Zulkernain bin Ahmad Mokshinon found its way past him on Rollin's next attack.
The tables were well and truly turned, as the onus was now on Grilled to score. Rollin' were too experienced a unit to let such an advantage go, and after Han Kok run was guided into a blind alley, they countered at pace through Nigerian star Robson Khumalo. Again, Bao-Tam was probably at fault as he hesitated in coming out for the low cross, allowing Zainuddin bin Fadzim to slide in and double Rollin's lead.
Even worse for Grilled, their main attacking outlet
Sandy Edmond was off the boil, and the few balls that managed to reach him were wasted. Despite that, the American winger packed a mighty punch in the 50th minute after cleverly shielding the ball from an early tackle, but luck was not on his side as it pounded into the crossbar.
Grilled's last and best chance came when
Zoltán Árva was put through by a buzzing Han Kok in the 62nd minute, and when that didn't go in, it was almost inevitable that Deng Wei-Ming would win the match outright with a superb free-kick that even Valdir might not have saved.
Han Lik-Tsun was a brave captain, but even he hung his head after that final nail in Grilled's championship ambitions.
