Rid Of Rids
Counter-Penalties
Grilled zipped into the sixth round of the Cup with a four-nil win against soccerid, but they were made to work extremely hard for it despite what the result suggests. In particular, it does not show that the hosts actually obtained three-quarters of the possession, but as Rotteveel so brutally reminded the audience, it is what you do with the ball that counts.
The City club went into the Cup match on the back of a resounding 8-0 win over Terillions, despite losing captain Sui Hongci after just eight minutes. His substitute James Debbaut made a statement with a hat-trick and thereby won a place against Grilled, but this time round he would gain nothing other than a yellow card off a late challenge that caused Han Kok to be taken off as a precaution.
Grilled were by then already two goals to the good, with soccerid's Norwegian sweeper Terje Myran already booked for delaying a quick free-kick after one of Grilled's rapier-quick counterthrusts. Their potency in that respect was boosted by young wingers Chuancheng and Jianyong, who had the legs to work soccerid's fullbacks mercilessly. Jianyong provided the opener through one such break, squeezing the ball into the middle for MacKinnon, who clumsily clattered into it and fell over, but not before seeing it go into the net.
soccerid's Qatari goalie Chamid Abed-Sulayman may have a similar name to Grilled legend Ahmed, but showed none of his penalty-saving prowness against Rotteveel. The hosts dug themselves into a deeper hole after panicky defending from Yamato hauled Chuancheng down in the box, leading to Rotteveel easily placing the ball in from the penalty kick.
That was followed by the substitution of Mirchev for Han Kok, which didn't slow Grilled down; Mirchev's first act was to restart the game by throwing the ball in to Jianyong, who then swept past his marker with a breathtaking turn and sprinted thirty metres down the left. Myran struggled to keep up with Rotteveel, who had seen the break and kept abreast of Jianyong's run, and finished off his cross with a storming header.
Grilled could have punished soccerid's lapses one final time in the first half, as
Han Lik-Tsun picked MacKinnon out with a long ball in injury time, but the Scotsman's first-time volley was rejected with great acrobatics by Abed-Sulayman.
soccerid's main problem was that they were just not threatening enough in offence, with their forwards Spiaggione and Leman well-covered by Grilled's back three. In fact, they had nary a successful forward pass, and Grilled seldom looked in trouble despite the opposition being more or less camped in their half. On the other hand, soccerid's defence was never comfortable with Grilled's attacking players, and Debbaut's misery was compounded when he dragged Rotteveel away from the ball in the 63rd minute, conceding another penalty.
Rotteveel hammered that in for the hat-trick, but Debbaut should not feel too upset as the match was all but over by then. soccerid wingers Mohd Farid and Daniele Ciappesoni tried to at least spoil Valdir's clean sheet, but were unable to do so from distance.
