Grilled Balanced
Rotteveel Again
Grilled eked out a grim draw against Tinombala FC, who had begun the season in fine form by beating Bass-Reflex 0-4 away. That didn't translate into good attendance at their stadium unfortunately no thanks to the inclement weather, with just over thirty thousand watching. Wai-Kit returned in goal for the hosts, while the Birds welcomed the sorely missed Lik-Tsun and MacKinnon back.
Grilled displayed much more steel with their backbone back in place, and were spared the shakiness of their young wingers in defence. Tinombala went at Grilled mostly though the centre, but took the first blow when Árva hit a long ball out of defence that fell kindly for Rotteveel. Lampert slipped, and the Dutch forward took the chance to outpace Singaporean national defender Huang Chi Tao and blast it past Wai-Kit. With the goal, Rotteveel extended his record of scoring against Tinombala on every meeting between the sides thus far.
That was not what the home fans expected, as Tinombala's impressive defence fell at the first hurdle. Put off their game, Tinombala could do little more than pump the ball up for the next ten minutes or so, a tactic that was gleefully warded off by Grilled's defence.
Their captain Chi Tao exerted a calming influence on the game, and the hosts then got the equaliser with rapid short passes. Tan Ting Sze appeared to have run into a dead end when he elected to go around the outside of Árva, but then cut in between him and Lik-Tsun so sharply that both were thrown off balance. Valdir nearly got a palm to the strike, but it was not enough as the ball bent into the far end of goal.
It was then all Tinombala as the hosts went forward eagerly, but Grilled stemmed the tide by committing men to defence. The best opportunity came when a gap presented itself to Lin Shang mei, but the striker curiously chose to fire at will instead of taking the ball further in. In any case, the attempt went right to Valdir, who had little trouble catching it.
The match became cautious and closed as time went by, as both teams seemed more interested in not losing than winning. Tinombala still managed to create a couple of notable chances, although Deng didn't do much with his, and Kaldrup was unfortunate to see his come off the crossbar. Grilled didn't make many inroads either, with Rotteveel given special attention each time he received the ball.
