Etihad Airways Cleared
Chen Cheer
Grilled had it good against United Arab Emirates top division giants ETIHAD, formerly known as ADNOC but rebranded following a bumper sponsorship deal, which went towards their spanking new Zayed Sports City stadium.
After Grilled's players were done marvelling at the modern conveniences installed in the visitors' dressing rooms, especially the gold-plated taps, it was time for business on the pitch. Fortunately, ETIHAD's expenses hadn't yet extended to world superstars, and
Jon Andrea Rottman quickly danced his way through to put Grilled into the lead.
The ETIHAD players had barely returned to their positions when Paullin dallied with the ball in the circle for a few seconds before sending the ball straight through to Chen, who appeared surprised that such a simple tactic actually worked. He wasn't shy about lashing the ball past Danish keeper Uffe From, though.
The white thawb-clad watchers, more exclusively men than the usual, didn't seem to mind, however, and shouted their encouragement whenever either side put together a passably good move. ETIHAD Damien Kaul-Seidman got the loudest yells as he moved through Grilled's central defence, but sent his shot straight up into the air.
Joe Stern hung out wide to win some space for himself, and did all the right things after receiving the ball from Pakpao. He waited until Chen arrived into the six-yard box, then found him with a very sharp pass that the Singaporean just about managed to redirect into the net.
As with the first couple of goals, another quickly followed, with
Au-Yong Siu-Yue appearing behind a distracted Schlunegger to send the ball just outside From's reach.
The second half began with Chen toiling away for his hat-trick, and he cursed his luck when his lob beat From but not his crossbar. There was then dancing in the stands after local favourite Saleem Ibraheem Ibn-Haroun, already an U-20 international and pegged for a place in the senior national squad, made up good ground and delivered a killer right-footed strike that Bao-Tam got to but couldn't keep out.
The crowd were so delighted, in fact, that some of them even cheered
Weng Seng-Huat for hacking down one of their own players, before checking themselves. Saleem again burst forward from the free-kick, but this time hit it right into Bao-Tam's arms.
Chen's hat-trick came in the 70th minute as he finished off a direct move down the right side, after which Honggi Schlunegger finally got a booking for persistent fouling, and Rottman nearly made it six with a courageous diving header.
