Humble "Success"
Not Good Enough
Grilled managed to get what they wanted, but not in the way they wanted, as they secured sixth place and the last qualifying spot despite being winless at The Cooking Pot throughout. The home of the Birds will be remembered as having seen five draws and two defeats in the league, a miserable record if there ever was one.
Arrogancae, who did not have a particularly good history here, arrived with an eye on securing the point they needed to confirm the title, and set up Niurnaitis by himself up top, and packed their half of the pitch. Some cheers were reserved for former Chicken Wings trainee Zhao Jing Wei, who started with the Number Five jersey in the visitors' midfield.
Grilled were well aware that they needed victory to guarantee their membership in II.2, but their urgency led to a boatload of rushed passes, especially by the young-and-learnin' forwards.
Gleb Dorogan tried to calm his teammates down, but his instructions fell on deaf ears, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Chow Ying Lee kept running into dead ends.
It was a thoroughly boring half with Arrogancae not eager to take the initiative either, though Niurnaitis did unsettle stand-in defenders Chinchay and Lefébure, as
Han Lik-Tsun again kept nothing in reserve.
Slavcho Tzonkov nodded off on the bench when it became clear that his services were not required.
Grilled's die-hards, barely thirty-odd thousand of them, were more fixated on the going-ons at S.T.A.D.E D.E S.P.A.R.T.A and Blackout Arena, but there was little of note there either as BDSM FC managed a single, saved, shot against Changi Genius. Dark horses ArseVikings suggested that they could be the ones to win the coveted playoff spot as they counterattacked brilliantly against Shining Lights, as they had against Grilled, but Piergiuseppe Massenzio was twice unlucky.
Arrogancae began to get serious in the second half, but even as they began to make more headway, the loudest cheers of the day were heard as it transpired that Mugurel Rusanu had scored for Changi. However, in the very same minute, ArseVikings' Abilio Cabana de Bergantiños got their breakthrough, which left them one more goal away from overtaking Grilled.
Darmantas Niurnaitis added to the pageantry by heading off Lefébure to put a strike past Stacey, the Lithuanian's seventh league goal of the campaign. That actually didn't change the overall situation as Grilled were still ahead of ArseVikings on goal difference, but their position had become increasingly precarious.
Grilled's fortunes then took a turn for the better, as Jesús Salinas Mila collected a quickfire double for Changi Genius, putting BDSM FC out of contention, about the same time as Geir Rørstad and Zabidi bin Katmon wrested the lead back for Shining Lights. Hijmen Huf added a third in the 83rd minute, which meant that both Grilled's direct opponents needed to find three goals in ten minutes to dislodge the Birds.
That exhausted Grilled's karma, and they lost
Erik Back to injury after the newly 34 year-old pulled up clutching his hamstring in the final few minutes.
Chow Ying Lee then got booked a second time, ruling him out of the qualifier, for chopping down Loinaz after the ball had gone, and Arrogancae put the finishing touches on the championship with a last-minute goal by Thure Schouby off a corner.
