Chillies Too Hot
Terrific Tong
Red Freaking Chillies became the first team to shut Grilled out in 41 competitive games, since the Birds were edged by Hertz United in the Cup two seasons ago, as their controlled demonstration at RFC Arena was rewarded with a convincing 3-0 squashing of the underperforming visitors.
With
lu Zunwen serving his one-match ban for unnecessary violence, Grilled had to rely on the slowing
Alex Fonseca in midfield. In addition, skipper
Qassem Madaini was forced to start on the bench after a virus left him out of sorts, with
Walter Ross happy to get only his second start of the campaign.
The Chillies for their matter kept to a tested 3-5-2, and they fielded a near full-strength side despite a stern test by Kang Xi Lai Le to come in the Cup. They chose a very tight middle line with both nominal forwards Rosario Bettella and Angelo Ehrsam operating almost as advanced playmakers, which Grilled's defence blindly followed upfield.
This had to an expected ending as Italian winger Massimo Impellizzeri found acres of space on the right with Ross drawn out, and he undid acting captain
Dexter Stacey with a top-drawer strike right into the near top corner. Stacey could be held mostly blameless for that, and he had to be on his toes to stop Massimo from effectively finishing the Birds off right the next minute, with a stunning stop from point blank.
Grilled were unable to keep a handle on the home side's ability to pack the numbers, but did threaten once or twice with long balls hoping to search out
Chow Ying Lee. This led to an indirect free-kick in the 17th minute, and
Paolo Iten orchestrated a complicated maze of passes that however wound up with Mohd Safri far too late.
Tom Hansson's electric bullrush from the wingback position into a scoring position had the crowd on their feet, but the Swedish fullback was hardly a natural finisher, and his booming shot spun wildly and ended up on the wrong side of the post.
The Birds appeared for the start of the second half none the wiser as to how to stop their opponents, and it was almost inevitable that homegrown hero Tong Feng Liang darted smartly through to make it 2-0 in the 57th minute. The one-club man had been in the shadow of his junior and U-20 international Fu Congyu for a time, but a string of excellent performances has seen his reputation surge.
It was certainly done no harm when he repeated the trick ten minutes on, anticipating a release by Bettella to the split-second, and he even had time to calm the animated Harald Polat down after his teammate was pulled up for impetuously disrupting a free-kick.
Fu could have turned the contest into a true whitewash when he put a fierce drive to the far corner, only for Stacey to clip it with an arm. Ehrsam's departure after crashing into the goalposts in search of the fourth did release the pressure on Grilled somewhat, as Russian replacement Arseniy Gotovtsev took his time to get up to speed.
Grilled threw in all their chips in the final ten minutes as they made two substitutions and had Seytek draw a yellow card, but their hopes for a consolation at least to extend their proud streak were dashed when Iten couldn't get his free-kick to come down, after clearing the wall.
