Two Against Twenty
MacKinnon Meddles
Grilled became only the second team to defeat Twenty2 FC this season, and the first to do so at their Twentennial Park, even if they were helped by a heavy dose of overconfidence by the hosts.
Twenty2 FC wasted no time in breaking out the champagne football against Grilled, who had however welcomed
Maikel Rotteveel back into their ranks. It was all going according to the script with Belgian central defender Wout Putter going clear of the Grilled back three with seven minutes gone, but Valdir put himself in the way and blocked off his path to goal.
With Putter out of position, Valdir tried a monster of a goal kick, and Subri distracted the remaining Twenty2 defenders sufficiently for Rotteveel to latch onto it. A beautiful second touch put the last man out of contention, and Grilled's main dangerman then continued his streak with a bazooka past Pablo Tapia.
That silenced the home fans some, but Twenty2 swiftly found their footing and patiently prodded for weaknesses in the Grilled defence. One was found by Asmawi bin Ahmad after Árva went to ground too early, though he might have been a little hasty in opening fire, and Valdir didn't have too much trouble handling it from such a distance.
The next one was given up by Han, who had given up his armband to Valdir in recent days. The 38 year-old turned far too slowly to keep up with Greek Yiorgos Mpistis' wonderful footwork, and was helpless to stop the inbound pass to the overlapping Oddvar Høiland, who equalised from a narrow angle.
Twenty2 were the favourites to take it from here, but Grilled strangely found themselves with the pick of the chances in the second half; Rotteveel received one of the easiest chances of his season after the opposition defence ball-watched a harmless-looking through pass by Quah, but contrived to spray his shot into the terraces with just Tapia to beat.
No matter, as Grilled once more depended on a practised free-kick routine to get ahead. Rotteveel made a long run-up but squared the ball to Branbilla in the middle, who then played it wide as the defensive wall charged at him.
John MacKinnon arrived late to put his foot through the ball, and once again sheer power was sufficient to catch the goalkeeper out.
The home team made two tactical substitutions on the hour mark, with midfielders Fong Tse Siong and Emelino Sánchez Zorrilla making way for Mazlan bin Rabin and Fehmi Afacan. The fresh legs soon crafted an opening for frontman Mohd Syamsuri bin Musa, but a courageous block by Lik-Tsun averted the danger.
The hosts controlled possession for the remainder of the match, but Grilled were almost comfortable, handily warding off most attacks. The Birds could even have went further in front after some good work by
Feng Darong down the left, but surely won't be complaining about a completely unexpected victory.
