Midas Touch
Tian Makes Ten
The Birds booked a place in the final sixteen as form forward
Tian Yonghang got the two crucial goals that took them past Golden Kakis in front of over 75000 in attendance. The Kakis rightly believed that they could make it, being on a winning streak of ten matches, but were granted little room by Grilled's suffocating possession play.
Han Lik-Tsun returned to an attacking 2-5-3 for the trip to Pasir Ris, furthermore putting Lefébure and Chinchay in a very high line. It was clearly keep the ball or bust, and Tian gave the team some breathing space by pinching a disputed header past Italian goalie Lino Beltramme. Tian could have followed that up with a ranged stunner six minutes later, but narrowly missed that first-time effort.
Golden Kakis were unused to seeing so little of the ball, and hustled to retrieve it egged on by their raucous support. Homegrown defender Seah Tong Yeng was everywhere as he doubled up on Grilled's forwards very effectively, though he was eventually booked for taking Safrinho out. The didn't deter him from shoving his way into a position to convert a neat pass from Silvano Gaud on their next attack, however.
Now back on level footing, the Kakis however found it hard to keep their momentum going, and the Grilled coach certainly felt that his side were doing the right thing as he made no substitutions for the first time in nine matches. His faith was repaid by Tian and
Erik Back, who issued a hands-off warning for his midfield berth by racing free on the right and assisting Grilled's ebullient youngster with a precise cross.
Play was strangely flat as neither side wanted to risk a mistake, with Kakis' drive being blunted by a warning strike from
Rosendo Chinchay that Beltramme had to deflect around his post. They were forced to sally forth as time ticked down, and nearly forced extra time as main striker Francesco Marasco pelted Grilled's post with a quickdraw effort, but Grilled saw it through successfully.
