Chopped By Wood
Smaev Unbeatable
heimu XI went to the top of the table with a resounding 3-0 home win against the Birds, their first in the three meetings between the sides. The star of the show was undeniably their 25 year-old Russian goalkeeper Dmitry Smaev, who dealt with everything Grilled's forwards threw at him.
The irony was that Smaev admitted that he wasn't even in top form, despite heimu's three clean sheets in their last five matches. The former Hot-Trick FC player sure didn't show it as he threw up a leg to deflect Branbilla's deflected scuff in the ninth minute, for which he was congratulated heartily by his defenders.
Grilled continued plugging at heimu's defences, and after a few botched attacks, the ball ended up with Mohd Safri at the head of the penalty box. Mohd Safri's classy lob towards the top corner was well worth a goal, but Smaev again flew across the required ground and pushed that over the bar.
It got worse and worse for the unfortunate Birds, with Vukota obstructing Uraz from getting to the ball in an attempt to usher it out for a goal-kick. The referee felt that Vukota had used his arms too freely, and awarded a penalty, which Spanish defender Roger Ricart readily converted.
What really got Grilled down was Dorogan's silly dribble along the edge of his own six-yard box, when he had the option to simply clear it to safety. The midfielder was left holding his head after he failed to spot Zeynel Uraz nipping in from his blind side, and was given a right rollicking by Valdir after the ball was clipped into his net.
Grilled were not short on effort, and after Valdir boosted team morale with a stupendous stop from Ljubomir Grgurović's wonderstrike in the 29th minute, they again put together some inventive assaults on Smaev's goal. Unfortunately, the referee wasn't feeling generous when Penati fell over after a bit of shoving by Aobo, and some fervent protests on the Italian's part got him the only booking of the match.
Italian fullback Rocco Zannoni then extended the lead to three with a towering header from a hanging cross from Jing Hin, and Grilled were fortunate to survive another pinpoint effort from Ricart in the second half, when it pinged the post and rolled along the goalline. Behr could have gotten a consolation for Grilled with two very decent headers, but Smaev was simply in an unbeatable mood.
