Heavy Fight
Tan Nearly
Grilled knew that they were up for it against an Archlight side that had won three of their four home league matches so far, and by a 20 to 5 goal difference. The hosts were moreover raring to go after a Cup exit followed by a whitewash of SHEV UNITED, and tried to get the ball to their strikers as often as possible.
The Birds found it hard to adjust to Archlight's raging tempo from kickoff, and their formation lost its shape after plenty of off-the-ball running. This left Dutch defender Cees Crol mostly free against Valdir a scant four minutes in, only for Crol to spin his volley a few metres wide.
Archlight still held all the cards, and soon after that, Marko Tauz cleverly switched flanks and became the extra man on the left. The Grilled defence couldn't pivot quickly enough, and Paquette snappily relayed the ball to the Croat; thankfully for Grilled, his shooting boots were off, and he put it right into a grateful Valdir.
Grilled didn't take the few counterattacking opportunities that fell their way, generally holding to the ball far too long, but they found magic in the feet of
Ciro Penati. The Italian winger dragged the ball away from Bleibaum on the half-way line and nearly went all the way, finally scuffing the ball to Han Kok, who made no mistake with his pinpoint strike.
That lung-bursting run appeared to take a lot out of Penati, and he was found wanting after Subri's deflected strike bounced kindly for him just three minutes later. He should really have taken it first-time, but elected to let it bounce, and by the time it came down a couple of defenders were already on him.
Archlight then went level thanks to the prolific Manuel Santos Aguirre, whose positioning was beyond reproach after Salmivalli gyrated his way past
Nawaz Talib, who was surprised by his unorthodox footwork. The celebrations had barely subsided when Árva, in his usual eccentric fashion, decided to join in an attack, was given the ball by Han Kok, and expertly flipped it past Carlos Luis Ibáñez for Grilled to again take the lead.
Grilled were helped by the inevitable slowing down of the pace, and appeared the fresher side in the second half. Subri snuck in after a good drive down the left by Darong was supported by Rotteveel, and he made full use of a two-second window to lash the ball past Ibáñez from eight metres.
Archlight were far from done, and Cees Crol got his name on the scoreboard, with the impressive Ken Paquette the architect of that goal. The Israeli had been cautioned for illegally stopping a potential Grilled breakaway, but didn't let it affect his game, and indeed he started off the move by dispossessing Penati rather crudely.
The home support screamed for an equaliser, but their chants were in vain as Malaysian fullback Tan Nam Quoc spurned their best go at one. Tapani Salmivalli got clear of Darong on the right and swung in a dipping cross right to Tan, but he tried to put too much power into the header, and ended up sending it well over the crossbar.
