StarZ Shocked
Leader Quah
Grilled piled misery on a fading GeoStarZ team in freefall, as they ran out six-nil winners despite playing away. The hosts had lost all four of their league games since Grilled got a 5-1 result against them at The Cooking Pot, which had led to some snide jokes about their players being unmotivated despite their trademark fiery pants motif.
The real cause for their slump was the offloading of eight of their best for a princely sum of well over S$40 million in March, a move clearly in preparation for rebuilding in Division Two. Grilled were of course not going to go easy because of that, and a cutting move four minutes into the match saw Subri hold off Brian Wichmann to beat local goalie Fang Hanyao tidily.
With Sid dropped, Grilled had no obvious taker for the free-kick at a corner of the penalty area given for shirt-pulling, but their combination play proved as effective. Rotteveel stepped over the ball and Talib squared it across to Han Kok, who hit the ball cleanly in mid-run for a well-worked team goal.
GeoStarZ could take heart that the tens of thousands of their fans who turned up were still behind their team at least, and the volume in the stadium increased to a shrill pitch when their heroes caught Grilled napping with a quickly-taken goal kick that bounced high over the covering Penati. Despite that, Valdir was always favourite to grab it, but the enthuasiastic young forward Tuan Rosli bin Yusoff wasn't about to give up, and barrelled right into the Brazillian goalie.
Rosli was elated as the ball was dropped and he gleefully tucked it away, only to throw up his arms as the referee disallowed the goal and booked him for the challenge on Valdir. It was probably warranted, as Valdir spent two minutes winded on the ground before he could stand again, and had to have Lik-Tsun take the free-kick for him.
Two goals in quick succession from Han Kok and MacKinnon more or less ended GeoStarZ's hopes of getting anything from the game, which was thus effectively over with three-quarters of it still to go. The hosts then belatedly started tightening things up, and gave a solid rearguard action given their limited resources.
They could not hold out indefinitely, and Grilled got a fifth just after an hour played, with
Zoltán Árva's magnificent effort from thirty yards ending GeoStarZ's stubborn resistance. Things got even harded for the beleaguered home side as Rosli was sent off for a second bookable offence, a ruling that left the 19 year-old clearly distraught. He had to be escorted away by a teammate, though a section of the fans showed their appreciation for his efforts by clapping him off.
Rotteveel was denied a tap-in by Druff's superb recovery on the goalline, as GeoStarZ kept their heads up and even had Grilled on the backfoot at times. Despite the circumstances, Ahmad Fuad bin Hashim's tackle was still uncalled for, as the midfielder went recklessly into Talib from the back. Had they not already been down to ten men, it seemed as if the referee would have dismissed Ahmad Faud without a second thought.
Rotteveel then nabbed the sixth after giving two defenders the run-around down the right flank to boost Grilled's goal difference going into the final run-in.
