Shot Down
No Saving This Time
Grilled's fears were manifested as ambitious Division Four club shoot'n'save attacked their way to a well-won 3-1 result, knocking two-time Cup winners Grilled out in the fifth round. Grilled had acknowledged that the City side were a dangerous bunch, but injuries to key midfielders forced their hand, and they could muster no better than a Han Kok-Branbilla partnership that proved sadly inadequate.
On paper, Grilled might have been thought to have the mastery nevertheless as the hosts placed only three in the middle, but the fluid interchanging of positions meant that formations represented little. Grilled had their chances to put themselves ahead, the best one a neat sixty-metre through ball from
Zoltán Árva to Penati, but the Italian lost his nerve and didn't even manage to test João Carlos Lisboa in the shootnsave goal.
Cheered on by a nearly 70000-strong home crowd, more than what many S-League sides have been able to attract, the home team then strung Grilled up with relentless attacks.
Sándor Deme nearly gave away a cheap goal when a simple cushioning move caused the ball to bounce to shootnsave striker Haji bin Yusop, but he was thankfully slow to react, allowing Lik-Tsun to scramble the ball away.
That was just the beginning, and Haji bin Yusop turned the game on its head with an extraordinary touch. First, his delicate chip from nowhere was so good that even though Valdir managed to tip it, it still dropped into the Grilled goal to spark wild celebrations in the stands.
Grilled equalised in short order as
Ciro Penati's speed brought him past all comers, but shootnsave were clearly the stronger side on the day. Lithuanian midfielder Meduardas Gudianas restored the lead within seconds, as Valdir was again embarassed by a lobbed ball. bin Yusop was booked in the same minute, but was still all smiles at the break as he recalled his contribution.
The Birds might have thought that their experience would win out in the end, but for that to happen they had to stop letting in goals. Unfortunately for them, there was no stopping Vítor Nascimento's driven pass out of defence, and with Grilled's backline caught flat, striker Ong Chao Jie had a free run. He managed to take it around Valdir to make it 3-1.
Grilled were out of ideas, and the game was soon dominated by Eduardo Aguiar who nearly made a couple of goals from the leftback position. Egon Haimerl and
Matthias Branbilla followed Talib and bin Yusop into the referee's book, but that made no impact on the score in the end, as Grilled never came close to rescuing the game.
