Paper Cut Apart
Tan's Freak Opener
Two unusual goals in the first half-hour were enough for Grilled to see A5_Paper away as the two teams slugged it out without changing the scoreline in the second half. Both teams were high on confidence after wins in their last match, with Grilled getting a hard-fought 3-2 victory off Archjoker.Fc and A5_Paper convincing in their 5-1 demolition of Manchester Town F.C.
The beginning of the match had A5_Paper coming forward through their right flank, with Ban Ka-wai probing against Peter Magunsson and Sverige import Christer 'Sannas' Her overlapping. Yi-Mou and Jia-Wen were followed closely by the Grilled defensive pair of
Tan Ong and
Ding Sun-Nee, though, and Sun-Nee with his speed prevented an early chance when he beat Yi-Mou to a dangerous first time ball by Her. Sun-Nee then fed the ball to Tellskär and ran the length of the field, and barely twenty seconds later got it back from Tellskär who hit a fifty-metre pass after holding the ball up on the flank.
Sun-Nee picked his corner well, but the A5_Paper goalie somehow anticipated him and punched the ball up and out. Grilled pressed their offensive impetus and in the 25th minute were rewarded when a cross by Sole was headed down by Seng-kar onto
Tan Ong, who instinctively straightened his body and directed the ball over a surprised Man-Kit.
This turn of events encouraged Grilled, who displayed some fine interpassing between Dai-Lin and Sole as they combined to turn the A5_Paper defence inside out a couple of times. Kar-Ho might have thought it safe to stop Dai-Lin in his tracks with a pull on the shorts some thirty metres out from goal, but he didn't count on Hobson's dead ball skills. Hobson struck a wickedly dipping ball that just evaded Man-Kit's grasp.
Despite that, A5_Paper still gave away another free kick intentionally, this time near the corner of the penalty area as Ka-Wai impeded Tellskär's movement. Hobson took it quickly and hit a rising shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and dropped down in front of the goal line, where an embarrased Man-Kit quickly smothered it. Grilled again nearly took a third when Chiew-Yen blasted a short pass from Hobson, but it was just a bit too close to the keeper. The momentum continued into the second half as Sole and Chiew-Yen had further opportunities they were unable to capitalise on. A5_Paper were limited to one poor attempt by Yi-Mou, but long before that the game had been decided.
