Grilled Birds 2 - 1
Sim™ 
Real Relief
S&S Show Up
The Cooking Pot saw its first competitive victory of the season right at its end, while Grilled's much-anticipated partnership of Safri & Safrinho made good with some lethal first-half finishing. Whether it sticks will remain to be seen, though, with Safrinho having been made available for good offers.
The Birds had last met visitors Sim™ six seasons before in the Cup, but have remained mostly stagnant from the team that beat them 1-7 then. Counterintuitively, none of the players that appeared for Grilled then started today, with then-captain
Han Lik-Tsun now pacing the sidelines nervously as Grilled's coach.
Sim™ in comparism had Portuguese forward Filipe Brito, now 34 years of age, still captaining the team, with midfielders Claudio Arcangeli, Yannik Lugmeyer and Peter Kjelling now all grown up and much better prepared for their second go at Grilled. Juliusz Januszyk, instrumental back then, was relegated to the bench.
Despite Grilled's poor recent record, they were the ones who sounded the first alarm, with
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim running onto a cross-field lift from Dorogan, only to put it right at Spanish goalkeeper Julián Garicaza. There is no stopping Safri when he's in the mood, though, and he timed his leap perfectly to nod a Madaini corner into the net with 17 minutes gone.
Grilled were on one of their streaks at this point, and all their passes and runs meshed together as they probed at the Sim™ backline. Eventually, Mohd Safri managed to lure central defender Bruno Sarron across to the right, leaving a gap which Safrinho rushed into and was promptly fed by Yonghang. Grilled had won eight and only lost or drawn three of the games that Safrinho had started his season, and the good-luck speedster ran true to form as he put the ball over Garicaza for 2-0.
Filipe Brito led from the front as he directed his colleagues with a loud voice, but Sim™ soon ran into another problem, as Sarron twisted his ankle and had to be replaced by Peter Mathan. Boroszló Moldván had to work doubly hard as Mathan got used to the pace of the game, and was forced to take a yellow for the team as he pulled Safri down to break up a promising Grilled attack and prevent a game-ending third goal.
Grilled came out prepared to protect their lead as the rain continued pouring down, and
Tian Yonghang had a half-chance to close it off when the ball dropped nicely for him in the 50th minute thanks to a mislaid strike. He went for the near post, though, and had his effort brush the outside of the post.
The Birds got a little too comfortable, and the visitors' Zalán Jusztin was handed far too much freedom in the Grilled box. Jusztin accepted the invitation to shoot, and it was only
Dexter Stacey's wingspan that kept the Birds from conceding a wholly preventable goal.
Stacey could do nothing against star Mexican wingback Damián Olague's swerving free-kick a few minutes later, but Han evidently felt that his side had the game wrapped up by the 85th minute, as he allowed club legend
Quah Han Kok what could well be the final appearance for Grilled.
It was painfully clear to the spectators that Quah, twenty days from his 40th birthday, was but a pale imitation of the midfield dynamo that helmed the team for over 300 games and represented his nation at all levels, but it was at least appropriate that his 356th, and probably last, appearance would go down in history as a win.
