Rolled Over
Hiekka Hattrick
What was feted as a roaring rematch turned out to be a whimper of a whitewash, which in fairness was partially due to the key figure in the grudge between the teams,
Valdir Dias Paes, being reduced to a mere spectator in a VIP box. Having being unable to secure a replacement during the offseason, Liehner was forced to call upon the ever-willing
Hang Bao-Tam, but unfortunately Hang's glory days were long past as he let six past him.
Grilled didn't even try to impose themselves on Rollin', and instead opted to defend in depth for the point. Hang actually did start out quite brightly, as he pulled off a top class save off Nigerian international forward Robson Khumalo, after Khumalo had barged past Lik-Tsun to fire a well-hit right footed riser on target.
Hang's brief purple patch ended after little more than half an hour, though, as the mobile Khumalo accelerated past Branbilla to threaten Grilled's goal directly. Hang tried to cover the angles, but he hadn't spotted Juho Hiekka nipping in at the far post, having eluded Sid's attentions. When the ball did come, the Finn had only to tap it in.
While that could hardly be blamed on Hang, the second was mostly his fault as Mark Linlind's glancing header off a decent cross from the overlapping Raja Azlan Shah bin Udi appeared to be flying harmlessly at him. Hang somehow failed to grab ahold of it, unfortunately, and unconvincingly swatted the ball only after it had clearly crossed the line.
Linlind himself lifted another cross into the penalty area four minutes later, and once more Bao-Tam was not up to par as he came out for it but failed to reach the ball. Árva tried to put Hiekka off his shot, but all the Finn had to do was to stand firm and guide the ball straight to give his side an insurmountable lead.
To Grilled's credit, they didn't stop battling, and after a short stoppage where Rollin's Iskandar was treated for a leg injury,
Maikel Rotteveel displayed some resistance by mercilessly turning the limping defender inside out and slamming the ball past Deng Wei-Ming.
In the end that meant little, as it was all one-way traffic in the second half. Grilled's defence tried to protect their fading goalkeeper as best as they could, to no avail as Linlind got in a solid effort in the 73rd minute that took a cruel deflection off Talib's thigh en route to goal. That broke Grilled's resolve, and minutes later Iskandar got some measure of revenge for his earlier slipup by rising majestically to execute a textbook downwards header past a flailing Hang.
The game was well and truly over long before Hiekka completed his hat-trick, but the action was far from over. Zainuddin bin Fadzim didn't do anything to heal the rift between the clubs when he hacked Han Kok down from the back, especially in light of the score, and the referee hesitated before lifting the yellow card instead of a straight red, in a move that disappointed the travelling fans.
Hang Bao-Tam then repaired his reputation slightly with good saves from Khumalo and Jurjan de Man in the dying minutes, but there was an air of resignedness about it by then.
