Second Twice
Five Star Flourish
Grilled made good on coach
Han Lik-Tsun's pledge to finish in the top half of the league table, and went two better by recapturing second place once more, despite stiff competition. Although there yet remains quite a gulf between the current side and runaway winners Arrogancae, the Birds can only improve as they assemble a dynamic young squad, and hinted at the future as they dismantled an admittedly second-string Arrogancae five-nil at The Cooking Pot.
Arrogancae had made their intention to reserve their starters for a probable S-League playoff known to all, an act that was clearly within their rights. Grilled on the other hand had eyes only for the couple of hundred thousand extra for finishing runners-up, and perhaps a bit of pride. The kickoff saw new signing
Alex Fonseca as part of the midfield three, as well as Peruvian goalie
Alvaro Silvera making his first start in Division Two.
This was an encouragement to the visiting Arrogance side, who clearly were here to hit Grilled on the break after defending in numbers. The team was likely under instructions to test Silvera early, and trainee midfielder Mohd Akmal Hizam bin Ali attempted to lash one towards the Grilled goal the first opportunity he got, but courageous defending by Crkvenjakov saved his goalkeeper the trouble.
Partly due to the rather dour opening, many of the near-80000 spectators, the highest attendence at The Cooking Pot since Grilled hosted, and lost on penalties to, UT Polar Bears to relegate from II.4 three seasons ago, were instead glued to scoreboard updates of the other concurrent fixtures. seluraralc, who had to beat newbies to have any chance of surviving, were doing their part as they took a 2-0 lead by the time Mohd Akmal got that first shot off. heimu XI and BDSM FC had also taken one-goal leads, and as things stood, Changi Genius and seluraralc were going down.
Their attention was soon returned to the game before them, as Arrogancae's reserves began to lose their shape under pressure from Grilled's experienced midfield. Andorran midfielder
Marc Pujolràs then finally scored his first for Grilled, a goal eighteen matches in the making, courtesy of a tricky free-kick routine. It had barely sunk in for Arrogancae, when
Chow Ying Lee blew past the defence with his speed to double the lead. It was however only his third goal in what must be a disappointing second season for the highly-feted youngster.
This goal coincided with news from See Mee Lan Park that Lee Siong Nie had made it two for BDSM FC, and was quickly followed by Jesús Puelles getting his second as seluraralc continued to run riot at the newbies ground. Barely two minutes later, Georgel Petricã equalised for Changi Genius in the Pasir Ris derby, prompting the on-fire
Domenik Bögengang to add to the excitement with a superb piece of finishing to cement his claim to the Golden Boot.
Half-time rolled along, and saw both Grilled and seluraralc near-certain winners, with both holding 4-0 leads going into the break. New captain
Gleb Dorogan had poached a fourth after Grilled swung in another free-kick caused by Chau Kwang Yong's questionable challenge, while a newbies side that was showing precious little resistance basically stood and watched as slick Italian forward Lorenzo Minicucci hit a volley first-time. With BDSM FC coping well with CharlesCheesePie despite conceding possession, it was all the seluraralc faithful could do to hope for a CCP comeback.
The mood was probably tensest at Changi Genius Arena, though, as the hosts needed a win to stay up, while heimu XI could get by with the status quo. As the match went on, all eyes were on the Jumbotron playing the Changi-heimu match, despite
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim doing well to scramble home another goal to make it 5-0, before being substituted with
Tian Yonghang. seluraralc likewise continued beating on newbies, going 6-0 up at one point, but their hopes were sunk as CCP missed their best opportunity, with Quirze Sans' great effort being saved, before BDSM FC put the shutters down with a neat strike by Sergiusz Garbicz.
With seluraralc's fate decided, all attention shifted to Pasir Ris, with only scattered exclamations greeting creative shots from
Alex Fonseca and
Marc Pujolràs. heimu XI had transitioned to all-out defensive mode after an early lob by Tobies Turu glanced off the bar, and losing German target man Zeynel Uraz soon after that. Changi were throwing everything including the kitchen sink at heimu, with Arnout Cevaal hitting a grounder agonizingly wide before Mohd Rosedy bin Kunju Mohamad smashed one against the bar to the dismay of the rabid crowd.
heimu's Colombian star defender Sebastián Guillermo Belén then had a golden opportunity to doom Changi Genius as he found himself one-on-one with Israeli goalie Dror Sapir after some horrible coordination from the impatient Changi defence, but ended up losing his composure and sending the ball high into the terraces. The crowd finally stopped holding their breath, and quickly returned to full volume as heimu's Sido Leemans brought Mugurel Rusanu down on the edge of the box.
The chance appeared to have gone begging as Per Nessholt missed connecting with the free-kick by a hair's breadth, but heimu did not manage to clear the ball properly, and Rusanu made himself a hero by accelerating past a clearly tired Belén to curl the ball into the far corner.
It was questionable whether anybody noticed what would otherwise have been a show-stealing rocket of a strike from
Chow Ying Lee, or the well-worked farewell goal for selularalc from Can Arafat, as the high drama continued at Pasir Ris. The roles of the teams were now reversed as heimu XI desperately tried to find an equaliser in the final five minutes, while Changi Genius kept all their men behind the ball. Eventually, Changi held out for victory, leaving the despondent visitors falling to the grass at the final whistle.
