Swaggering On
Subri Too Late
A weakened Grilled were not given much of a chance against a star-studded Arrogancae side which had won all their league games thus far, but Grilled at least provided a stiff test for the East Coast club.
John MacKinnon was sorely missed, as
Ciro Penati went missing all too easily.
It might have been a very different game had
Maikel Rotteveel been more clinical in the fifth minute. Arrogancae were not yet in full stride thanks in part to the hostility of the home supporters, and the stadium held its breath when Rotteveel brought a searching ball down on his chest and faced down second-choice Italian keeper Patrizio Turone.
The unexpected resting of Zmejko Nadzakov was an open invitation to bombard his replacement, but Rotteveel was too clever with his approach, and ended up curling it harmlessly into the side netting. Arrogancae's Finnish winger Einar Hansen had no such complications in mind, and showed Rotteveel how it should be done with a hard drive into Valdir's far bottom corner in the ninth minute.
Grilled were unable to prevent Freerk Dorrepaal from taking a shot two minutes later, but kept the visitors at bay for the rest of the half. This was initially appreciated by the home crowd, but the cheering soon died down after it became apparent that the Birds didn't have the ability to prise Arrogancae apart in attack.
It was Arrogancae who came out stronger in the second half, and Hansen could have made it a brace after Árva missed a crucial tackle in the build-up. He put that narrowly wide, and was unlucky a second time when he beat Valdir with a swirling shot returned from a corner kick, but Sid was standing tall at the far post and headed it over and out.
Grilled might have thought that they could wait it out after Luís André Silva Godói fluffed another decent chance, but their luck run out as Roberto Valiardo was too good to miss after Dorrepaal darted beyond Lik-Tsun and fed a square ball to him. With that, Arrogancae felt it safe enough to fall back and wait out the remainder of the game.
That gave Grilled their chance to show what they could do, ironically, and
Subri bin Ku Zainol ghosted in behind the Arrogancae backline to tip home a hopeful flat ball from Spirig. Grilled toiled on in search of the goal that would cause the visitors to lose their first points of the season, but it never came.
