Socked For Six
Forwards In Full Flow
The Birds continued on their league rampage, as they dispatched the struggling soccerids by six goals to nothing at Duxton Plains. The home side had yet to garner a point going into this fixture, and twenty minutes was enough to convince most of the spectators that they would have to wait a little longer for that.
As with Grilled, soccerid had been knocked out of the Singapore Cup on Wednesday, and were without young defender Cai Jun Chi, who was busy finalising his move to Colombian side Sabados Felices1. Star centrebacks Dino La Malfa and Felix Dix, who cost a combined total of over S$11 million, were in attendance, but they could do nothing against a Grilled strikeforce bent on making up for lost time.
Ciro Penati was restored to the Grilled lineup as they quite openly resolved to rely on counterattacks, and for once this strategy was executed to perfection. The first goal was all down to Penati's brilliance, though, with the Italian turning his man down the right and angling a pass to Dorogan, who sidefooted it past Casarini for his first league goal of the season.
If the home team were affected by the opener, which came against the run of play, they didn't show it, and continued their disciplined holding game. All that patience was cruelly ripped up by a single man's ridiculous pace, sadly, as Belgian defender James Debbaut found that he had nothing on
Chow Ying Lee's speed. Mohd Farid bin Abd Karim appeared stunned that a relatively innocuous misplaced pass had led to a goal within seconds.
That was far from the end of Chow's deeds, as he kept piling on the pressure with his constant movement. In more good news for Grilled, their U-20 forwards seem to have come to an understanding, with Mohd Safri cutting the ball back unselfishly for Chow on the half-hour mark. The latter supplied a finish equal to the pass, and the two shared a only-slightly-awkward hug.
soccerid's fans were caught in two minds whether to encourage or harangue their team, as they were indisputably three down, but hardly deserved it. Their German striker Anton Heinsohn then delivered a stunning bullet header that was well worth a goal, but
Valdir Dias Paes had other ideas, and kept it out with his fingertips.
Another tall German forward had much better luck, and that man was Grilled's
Domenik Bögengang. The opposition had finally figured out that the best way to stop Chow on his current form was to pull him down, and they did so on Grilled's next counterattack. Unfortunately, they didn't count on Bögengang's skill from dead balls, and he hit it around the wall and into the far corner from over twenty-five metres.
Grilled had one last hurrah to come in the remaining three minutes of the half, as they earned another free-kick near the penalty area. Bögengang appeared to have fluffed this one, and it was difficult to say whether he had planned for the ball to go to
Erik Back, who was standing in the wall. Either way, Back immediately sent it wide to Penati, Penati quickly lobbed it back in to Mohd Safri, and Mohd Safri was only too happy to nod it into goal.
That was curtains for soccerid, and Grilled were content with defending their quite considerable lead for the rest of the match. Second half substitute
Kyou-Chull Kim was less than impressive, but it hardly mattered as Valdir kept out passable efforts from Spiaggione and Widl, and Bögengang mopped up with a second free-kick goal.
