Across The Line
Fan Double
With days to go before their do-or-die contest against Arrogancae to stay up, Grilled's reserves gave the first team courage with a well-fought two-nil over Cambodian Division Three visitors Borderliners FC, and it could have been more had Belgian goalkeeper Lander Vandenbergh not been on his toes.
The budget signing from FCVoetbalclub was far from convincing initially, and was beaten on his first real test by
Fan Xiuyu, after the beefy forward shoved his way past Bordies' guard before putting his foot through the ball hard. Vandenbergh was much improved by the time
Wardi Azhari scooted free of the defence to get a toe to a searching pass, though, and extended himself excellently to keep that out.
The goalposts at The Cooking Pot took a lot of punishment as they withstood a bunch of close calls, with Guenter Häuser narrowly missing contact with a free-kick that scraped the woodwork, before Bruno Stamminger came in with a monster of a half-volley that nearly took the foundations off. The same was seen at the other end, with Xiuyu agonizingly watching his header bounce back off the sticks, before Safrinho found the crossbar with a cheeky lob.
It was a fine showing from the pair, who are reputed to be considering their future at Grilled. The rest of the youngsters also gave good accounts of themselves,
Neo Da Teck particularly couldn't be faulted for a lack of effort as he patrolled the entire field, collecting a yellow for an overzealous foot in through the back of an opposition player.
Borderliners FC defended adequately for the first part of the second half, as they denied Grilled's impatient tyros more than a look at Vandenbergh's goal, but the Belgian would have to pick the ball from his net a second time as Safrinho zoomed past an unaware Pennanen to hand it to Xiuyu on a plate.
Li Boon Boon, pushed back to midfield for this game, created the second best opening of the half as he spotted Safrinho's dash and lofted a cross into the space in front of the speedy striker, and only the top of Stamminger's head saved what would have been a near-certain third. Li would not have long to go as he was substituted by
Edvaldo Mourão, and veterans
Vukota Crkvenjakov and
Yvan Lefébure too joined in for the lazy final minutes.
