Badly Bruised
Carlos Carlos
Defeat was not unexpected, but the scale of it didn't reflect well on Grilled as they sank into the relegation zone after a tonking by BBrookies. The departure of arguably their two most influential attackers moreover left debutants Bögengang and Mohd Safri dangling, and three goals in the last ten minutes lent gloss to the home side.
It could have been all so different as
Zoltán Árva was handed a wonderful opportunity by
Ciro Penati as the Italian winger tore up the right side, and Árva slid into the low cross. BBrookies goaltender Hung Min How threw himself at it also, and just about smothered the second minute effort.
Grilled coped alright in the King's Stadium until Rotteveel was caught late by a recovering Waldick de Deus, and it all went downhill from there. Mirchev filled in but didn't pose quite the same threat, and an emboldened BBrookies soon came through with a snap shot by Carlos Manuel Andrade.
The Birds, shorn of leadership from the front, began to rely more and more on the blistering pace of Penati, but that came to an end after the winger reared up painfully after trying to accelerate. It became apparent that he had a muscle strain, and while half an hour's rest might have been enough for him to retire, Grilled simply couldn't spare that much time.
Feng Darong came on, but Grilled had lost their dynamism up front.
BBrookies seemed to be content with their goal lead as the match wore on, but ironically their falling back led to Grilled's doom. Grilled had to push up, but that left acres of space behind an immobile Lik-Tsun. The newly anointed player-coach, beaten for pace, tugged Mohd Nafuzi bin Mustaffa down in the 65th minute, and Andrade swerved the free-kick right into the bottom corner.
Heads dropped after that, and chaos spread in the Grilled defence as Lik-Tsun and his vice-captain Valdir screamed conflicting orders. Whatever the cause, nobody was within five metres of Kwek Chao Aik when Yannick Illner knocked the ball down the left side, and the 19 year-old midfielder picked his spot well.
That was the signal for an all-out rout, and Mohd Nafuzi ghosted in between Behr and Lik-Tsun to score the fourth. Two more, from Ahijit Kumar and Henryk Heinze, followed, to condemn Grilled to one of their four worst league defeats ever.
