Dazzling Through
Two Injured
The Birds once again did the business against Yellow Buggies, and with more verve than expected as they cut through the hosts' highly-reputed backline four times. Yellow Buggies clearly missed first-choice S$12.7 million-rated shotstopper Mário Trigueiro, who was left out following a niggling concern with his leg, but still boasted of Kazakh former national sweeper Zhasbol Izbanov, ably flanked by the seasoned Sergey Dosaev and Gonzalo Jarabran.
Against such a defence, Grilled had little option but to unveil
Domenik Bögengang, who was rested after 45 minutes against CharlesCheesePie on Sunday for this very occasion. Still, most punters thought that the first goal would be hard-fought over, but it ended up happening after just six minutes as
Gleb Dorogan cut back wondrously from the left wing.
Fan Xiuyu instinctively pushed the cross goalwards, and Dutch goalie Thim Gall couldn't dive far enough in time.
Conceding so early shook the hosts, and they struggled to hold possession as Grilled grew more confident with each passing minute. Even centreback
Lin Jungui grew bold and began making inroads into the attacking third, and he saw a half-chance skip agonizingly into the side of the net. He kept at it and did score his first for Grilled, a minute after Dorogan hurt himself in a freak accident and had to be substituted by
Quah Han Kok.
Buggies valiantly tried to hang on to the game, but it looked beyond them when Bögengang, always a threat, forced his way through after the usually unflappable Izbanov lost out on a header. Gall rushed out after a slight pause, but it was always Bögengang's to miss, and the German hotshot had little trouble finding a gap to knock it in for three-nil.
Just 35 minutes had gone by when
Erik Back, seemingly fully recovered from his recent knock, spearheaded a Grilled counterattack after Buggies lost the ball in midfield, and Safrinho sped in at pace to convert Back's final ball. While Gall managed a superb stop to deny Bögengang a brace, it felt inconsequential in the grander scheme of things.
The teams filed out at the beginning of the second half with the outcome probably decided in their minds, and
Marc Pujolràs decided to use the match as a stage to showcase his silky skills, an act which divided the crowd. Their mood definitely soured when promising 18 year-old Italian midfielder Vittorio Bandirali got the worst of a meaty one-footed challenge by
Kyou-Chull Kim, who escaped a booking despite clearly distressing Bandirali, eventually replaced by local lad Bao Rongfang.
Kim was himself pulled off six minutes later, along with Bögengang, as the result was no longer in doubt.
Anders Josefsson and
Tian Yonghang were the eager replacements, though it was evident that Tian had yet to find his form over the beginning of the week.
Grilled played out the last quarter of the match with ten men, after Safrinho was involved in a nasty clash of heads with a Buggies defender. The Birds never looked quite as threatening after that, but thankfully, they didn't need to.
