Dragoons Scattered
Safri Omen
Niculae Stanca struck on his competitive full debut, while several other infrequent scorers too garnered goals as Grilled routed Woodlands club Dragoonpower 0-X to kick off the new season.
Even with a huge tie against Arrogancae upcoming, Grilled risked most of their strongest side against the Division Five side, with only Stanca, Josefsson and Safrinho unlikely to take to the field in Sunday's big match.
Dragoonpower, who had never left V.137 in their long history, which rivals Grilled, didn't turtle up as so many other minnows had, but their gameness meant that Grilled found little trouble in racing to a practically unassailable lead.
Gleb Dorogan was left alone after the entire left side of the home team pressed up to support an optimistic attack, and he made Dragoonpower pay.
Roberto Mausisa then doubled the lead by the sixteenth minute as he powered the ball past Aindow from outside the penalty area, and Stanca then had one served to him on a platter, with
Chow Ying Lee cleverly slipping the ball between the centrebacks for the Romanian to mop up.
Grilled's animated young forwards were impatient to get in on the action, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was the first to do so, timing his jump just right to reach
Yvan Lefébure's excellent corner. Safrinho volleyed another in before the break, as Grilled began lapsing into exhibition mode.
Valdir Dias Paes was substituted by
Alvaro Silvera at half-time in a bid to keep him fresh for Arrogancae, though to be fair he could have set up a beach-chair in front of his goal, the opposition not having mustered a shot on target yet.
The Birds were clearly not as generous, and Mohd Safri completed his hat-trick by the 70th minute, with Lefébure notching one too by then. Safrinho appeared none too happy to have to make way for Bögengang, while Josefsson strolled off with far more equanimity, giving
Kyou-Chull Kim the chance to stretch his legs.
The only question remaining was whether Grilled would hit the double-digit mark, which they had not done for fifty-six competitive matches; Dorogan would raise hopes with a cracker from his right boot to make it nine with eighteen minutes to go, spurring Grilled to renewed efforts.
The target was eventually achieved in somewhat contentious fashion, as
Chow Ying Lee went flying over Tan Li Liang's thigh a couple of minutes later. There was admittedly little the Dragoonpower defender could have done, but the referee awarded the penalty anyway.
Dorogan had a brief discussion with Lefébure about taking the spot kick, with a hat-trick on the line, but the Frenchman refused to be relieved of his duties, and did the job with a confident grounder right down the middle.
