KinGs Left Behind
Chow Runs With It
Division Four leaders KinG Se7en got off to a dream start with a second minute goal, but had not counted on the magic of
Chow Ying Lee, who despite all the hoopla over
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim's comeback and
Tian Yonghang's emergence has established himself firmly as the go-to guy of the moment in this Grilled setup.
Chow nearly didn't even make the bench together with
Abdul bin Jantan, as the duo failed their medicals on Tuesday morning, but managed to pass a makeup in the evening at their insistence.
Qassem Madaini returned to the fray, but the Saudi captain was clearly not up to scratch as he fell for a basic feint from Romanian midfielder Sorin Luca, who then took his time to bury it against an exposed Stacey.
This was the exact opposite of what happened last week, and fears of a battering by the charged-up hosts began to surface among the travelling fans. They gradually subsided however as Grilled held their nerve and worked their way back into the match, even as the poor visibility made passes over any distance at all difficult.
Chow Ying Lee's solution was the take the ball with him, and his constant badgering of the defence paid off in the 18th minute, when he advanced into the blind spot of the centrebacks.
Tian Yonghang bombed the ball to the middle of the penalty area as the KinGs players tried unsuccessfully to signal offside, and Chow guided his finish past Jan Munik with a steady left boot.
Possession was about evenly split between the teams, but counted for less than usual as they struggled to make things happen. The only realistic chances came from rare breaks, as when
Lin Jungui was a mite too slow in the 29th minute to take advantage of Iten's surprise inside pass. Other than that, the long stretches of build-up inevitably came to nothing.
lu Zunwen was uncompromising in midfield, breaking plenty of moves up, but also collected a card.
KinG Se7en coach Clayton Mason wasn't afraid to make adjustments to his tactics, and the Canadian sent Siegrich Graninger on for Kajetan Karczewski to begin the second half. It wouldn't have mattered however as
Chow Ying Lee once again surged unstoppably beyond the central defenders, whose numbers were of no use against such pace; Munik closed the angle cleverly, but Chow had the option of Mohd Safri wide to his right, and the U-20 internationals combined faultlessly to put Grilled ahead with Mohd Safri's milestone 50th.
Mason's next change was to wave Ruben Maaranen upfield, where the Finnish winger was tasked with attacking the vulnerable-looking Madaini. Encouraged by Vadim Berton forcing Stacey into a fingertip save, Mason made another attacking substitution of Frank Jarvis for Koo Kwang Heng, and then signalled for goalscorer Sorin Luca to keep trying his luck.
All his well-laid plans were unravelled by the frightening individual ability of Chow, however, who despite the soggy surface still at times made his markers look like they were standing still. It happened again in the 73rd minute, as William Vandikkelen knew what was going to happen but had no way of stopping it - Chow got ahead of him with a couple of wide strides, and then placed his shot through Munik's legs, easy as pie.
This was the moment for
Niculae Stanca to make a change of his own, as he professionally disregarded Chow being on his hat-trick to rest him for
Tang Hengcai. Chow looked slightly disappointed at having to come off, but made his way to the dugout with no complaint, leaving his colleagues to slow the game down for the final twenty minutes.
