Penguins Pecking
Top Birds For Now
Newly-repromoted Pudgy Penguins bounced back from a narrow defeat to Tinombala FC, asserting their position as high-fliers with a comprehensive three-nil humbling of Grilled. There were a few wisecracks about the hot sun not melting The Igloo Dome by the travelling Grilled fans, but they were left dumbstruck by a display of blazing offensive verve that brought three goals in thirty minutes.
Grilled placed too much faith in the strength of their defence, and lined up ready to absorb Penguins' attacks, no thanks to the continued absence of Subri. They were to be foiled by Penguins centreback Valentim Amora, playing unusually high up, who was quite superb as a libero. Even so, the first shot on target came from the Birds, as Talib was slow in getting back after a corner and was handily placed to receive a forward pass from Branbilla.
That was a false dawn for Grilled, as Penguins readily answered with a straightforward goal. Alejandro's corner to Markus Idriss was as standard as they come, but the ease with which the tall Swiss ignored Deme's attentions and headed it into the top corner was worrying.
Even great sides can't defend all set-pieces successfully, and as such Grilled were not overly bothered, but the second by Crescentino confirmed the folly of their counterattacking strategy. Talib was nowhere to be seen as the Penguins had a three-to-two advantage in the final third, and central striker Tze Sian took the obvious pass to the unmarked Crescentino, who only had to keep his calm to place it to one side of a stranded Valdir.
The reality had barely sunk in, when Grilled restarted sloppily with Rotteveel hitting a long ball into the channel that Penati had no hope of chasing down. It was returned quickly as the Penguins attacked the right side, with Mowat dropping wide and hitting the early cross. Su Sun Nee had smartly dashed into the box unmarked, and powered it with his head downwards for a wonderful third goal.
The Penguins might have readlly rubbed it in as Grilled looked shattered at this point, but they decided to be conservative instead, content with a three-goal lead. Thus, the Birds somehow stumbled to the break without conceding any more.
Grilled showed some character as they got the second half underway bristling with intent, and Lik-Tsun could have sparked something special when a cannonball of a pass by Árva found him after another corner was cleared, but goalkeeper Wang You De was on top form and flung himself nearly the length of the goal to keep his goal unbreached.
The Birds, encouraged, kept it up, and Ashaari bin Husin suffered for it as Rotteveel brought him down in a hurry to conjure something. The steady defender couldn't move properly after the incident, but Arkadiusz Lubawski was an able deputy and slotted in seamlessly.
In the end, Grilled had nothing to show for their efforts as the Penguins were adept at controlling the play, and Branbilla in particular had given it his all. He therefore could hardly be faulted as Luo Tze Sian lost him in the 84th minute to bear down on the Grilled goal, and while Valdir saved that one handsomely, it had no bearing on the outcome.
