Temasek Reviewed
Balance Zero
The Birds tightened their grip on third place with a clear 4-0 victory over Temasek Lions FC, who fielded Lee Puay Wen up front by himself with Chia Xin Meng still two weeks from a return after his fracture against heimu XI. The visitors pinned their hopes on Venkata-Giri Sinha, but the midfield schemer was overwhelmed after former The Void Deck and soccerid wide midfielder Luo Ziyou had to go off in the 34th minute.
Temasek Lions, who are running out of time to stage a great escape from the relegation zone, remained pragmatic enough to adopt a soak-and-strike strategy at The Cooking Pot, where Grilled have won their last three on the trot. Winger Faziallah bin Saidi was drafted in as a wingback in the hopes that his experience would allow him to cover adequately, with an unchanged stable midfield five.
Their gameplan was wrecked after just seven minute, however, with Grilled's central attack proving to be irresistable - indeed, the last time they were kept out in a competitive match was 28 games ago in the Cup against Hertz United.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim hinted at his depth of craft with an intelligent first touch setting the ball between two defenders, and followed it up with a magnificent plowing drive past Tan Fu Liang.
There were at least still 83 minutes for Temasek Lions to get it right, and they did herd Grilled's forwards into blind alleys well enough for the following 25 minutes or so, up until
Abdul bin Jantan found Luo with a high boot after the two leapt for the same high ball on the flank. Luo's teammates were enraged at bin Jantan catching him on the chest, but referee Stefano Larocca felt that a yellow card was appropriate punishment, and replays confirmed that the Grilled player wasn't looking at the point of contact.
The Lions decided to continue without Luo after the downed man failed to recover his breath, and 37 year-old Mudzar bin Abu Bakar was tasked with replacing him. He had not gotten his first touch when
Chow Ying Lee kept pace with Mohd Safri with his tenth league goal of the campaign, breezing past a distracted Lions defence to clip it in.
The visitors had not yet finished paying dearly for not returning to full concentration, as
Paolo Iten somehow went clear right from the kickoff, despite being hemmed in by multiple defenders. Iten was helped by a lucky break of the ball off a defender's shin, but there was nothing unmeant about his excellent finish, curling it around Tan.
Temasek never quite found their way back after that double blow, and memories of their disciplined 2-0 win over Shining Lights appeared in the distant past as Iten added a second after the break. He was given far too much room by Faziallah, who never quite looked like a natural defender, and cut in sharply from the right to arrow the ball into the top corner.
Realising that it was done and dusted, local coach Carl Ash shrugged and motioned for his players to at least try and secure a consolation goal. Lee did test
Dexter Stacey, but Grilled hit back in force through
Slavcho Tzonkov, who grazed the crossbar before his number came up.
Lin Jungui took over his duties nicely, and
Tian Yonghang then bemoaned not scoring after turning Andrew Carn inside out.
Paolo Iten received a caution for a thought-out challenge in the 83rd minute, while
Alex Fonseca and
Tang Hengcai were given three minutes on the field towards the end. The final whistle went as Sinha attempted a wayward potshot from thirty metres out, which meant that Stacey could celebrate his first league clean sheet of the season.