Final Tuning
Safri Goes Nova
Grilled wound up a so-so season with a six-nil win over a reserved Arrogancae selection, which saw current national centre forward Meng Yunbin receive a warm welcome from the national team supporters in the crowd. He alone wasn't quite enough to pull up this transitional team against a Birds side hungry to prove themselves fit for the upcoming challenges, though, and it was
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim who established himself as big man of the day with four uninterrupted strikes.
The storied Arrogancae have not quite been themselves after picking up their last S-League title, and other than Meng, the only household names that they have retained are probably newly-arrived former Twenty2 FC youth player Tuan Rosli bin Ahmad, and pacy Argentine attacking midfielder José Carlos Higa. It was not as if they were going to bother to defend in any case, and
Zhu Changchun nearly celebrated his return from injury with a third minute rocket that eased wide of the post.
Mohd Safri has been quiet by his standards for some months, with
Tian Yonghang overtaking him in both the scoring and popularity stakes. There is no question that this has eaten at the reigning face of the club, and he went about righting his image with an expressive snap header off a flat
Shiya Shaahee cross.
The Maldives winger is ironically still at Grilled despite being transfer-listed for the longest period, while lu Zunwen and Liang Liyong have already found new clubs, but neither he nor the Birds appear to be regretting it as he gave French fullback Michel Drelon a lot to think about. A dummy run in the 14th left Mohd Safri only one man to beat, and the complete forward shimmied past Charaf N'Dour for his second.
Chow Ying Lee and
Tian Yonghang fared rather worse as they collected only a yellow and a saved shot in comparism, as Arrogancae got Grilled's number till the second half. A triple substitution followed, which however did their fortunes no good as Mohd Safri wound in on the left and swiped his hat-trick.
Even
Niculae Stanca, who has declared himself willing to let Shaahee go more than once, found himself nodding in earnest when the winger clipped in a corner for Mohd Safri to make it four, and he must be contemplating whether to give this inside-outside partnership another try. Chow finally barged in on the lovefest with a good hit coming straight through, for 5-0.
Arrogancae's travelling fans, who had precious little to appreciate for much of the contest, perked up when the 22 year-old Kok Wen Guang gave
Rashid bin Ahmad the slip, before skimming a fair try goalbound. Unfortunately, it was far too close to
Edmund Kryus.
It just wasn't Tian's day as he saw a special lob tap the crossbar, and it was left for
Chow Ying Lee to mop up after himself on the second attempt to round it off.
Zhao Jing Wei tried his luck with a long shot, which stand-in goalkeeper Bruno Fígoli won plaudits for keeping out.
