Anything But Loose
Behr Battered
Grilled struggled to a stalemate with Champloo FC in an extremely physical encounter between the two relegation candidates, as defence was the order of the day with very few matches remaining. Grilled, despite remaining three points behind, might be happier about the result, as the visitors looked the most likely to score.
Attention was focused on Champloo's Croatian striker Gordan Pavelka, who had already scored against the Birds, and had a respectable tally of seven in twelve league matches so far. He lost Behr in the 14th minute, and only some wonderful proactive goalkeeping from Valdir kept Grilled from going behind.
Champloo continued forcing their tempo on the Birds, as they tried to find a way out of their two-match losing streak; Local forward Ang Chun Min, who had been on a barren run, found that things could get worse as he was caught late by Talib's tackle. The 33 year-old will likely be out for a month, as Talib escaped with a yellow card.
Grilled's golden opportunity of the game came after about half an hour, as
Ciro Penati worked his way along the right touchline while Han Kok yelled at his teammates to move up. Not many saw the point in
Ronny Behr's lumbering forward, but the English central defender changed a few opinions with a mighty right-footed drive that nearly broke the crossbar.
That was however the only time Champloo goalie Hilbert van der Berken would come close to being threatened for the entirety of the evening, as the visitors took over. Pavelka then showed his nastier side as he caught Behr on the side of his face with a stray elbow, which gave Chuan Heng his first competitive appearance of the season.
Being on a yellow didn't slow Pavelka, and he leaped to a corner kick with amazing speed to direct it over Valdir. Fortunately for Grilled, it was stopped by the post, and Árva managed to hack it away. The woodwork again saved Grilled later on, as Maël Alexandre curled one onto the outside of the other post.
Grilled were under heavy pressure in the closing minutes as they just couldn't break out of their own area, and they had Valdir to thank for smothering an effort from veteran Zainol Abidin bin Yusoff that would surely have won it for Champloo.
