Locomotive Derailed
Borup Bucks Up
South Korean Division Two side Seoul Locomotive gave Grilled a redeeming friendly victory, as it held particular significance for
Terkel Borup who netted his first in the green and black. The Locomotives had it back to 2-2 after 32 minutes, but Hjortlind's instant response paved the way for Chiew-Yen to sew things up.
Dani Spirig had the measure of defender Jae-Yup Cho as the two raced for an early through ball, and Spirig was just in the penalty area when Se-Hong Baek butted in. There were strong protests from the home fans at the call, even though Baek escaped a caution. Borup set the ball on the spot reverently, but skewed his try badly after appearing to take a misstep.
That miss was met with general celebration, but Borup didn't let it affect him as he needled in a five-metre strike as Paullin's overhit cross was too high for the players clustered in the six-yard box. Borup retrieved it as it was bouncing out of play, and widened to a makeable angle before making it one-nil.
Dragos Olaru put in a much improved performance as he played intelligently on the left wing, lending much-needed width to the active but lightweight midfielders. After holding down a man on his side, he passed out to Han Kok who stabbed a quick return ball to the overlapping Tuan-Mu, whose low shot Kyu-Hwang Lim got a hand to but could not stop from trickling over the line.
Locomotive's leftback Wook-Soon Yang packed a powerful left boot, as was shown later on in the same minute as he tore through the center at breakneck speed to reach a 50-50 ball. Jumping over Pakpao's sliding challenge, he considered his options with Tuan-Mu almost on him and decided to give it a try from twenty metres out. Bao-Tam jumped late as the volley dipped into the top corner.
Zheng Shi-wei then reset things with a clinical finish after pacey right winger Jeong-Hwa Jung overran Siu-Cheung completely, making a three on two situation at the back. Shi-wei was the free man, and as Bao-Tam came out he took a neat sidestep to the inside and poked the ball into the unguarded net for a goal of pure simplicity.
Grilled knew how to reply quickly too, and Hjortlind was ever one of the specialists at breaking opponents' reverie. Not expecting Grilled to attack from the kick-off, few Locomotive players were on defense as Chiew-Yen and Hjortlind made a beeline for their goal. Chiew-Yen was beaten off the dribble, but Hjortlind recovered and bolted a stiff shot in off the post.
Borup lived dangerously as he kept up the full-blooded tackles even with a yellow card on him, but kept his nose clean for the rest of the game. He contributed a worthy assist to Chiew-Yen in the 65th minute, spinning a forward pass around the last man perfectly for the 32 year-old striker to pass into goal.
Locomotive's captain Jae-Yup Cho hit a magnificent free kick at the near corner after a confusing run-up, and had Bao-Tam not been so close he would have had no hope to punching the ball back out. Paullin brought the ball up, and squared a good cross to Han Kok, who must have thought he had broken his scoring duck with a textbook diving header. He couldn't change the ball's direction unfortunately, and headed straight to Kyu-Hwang.
No more goals would be forthcoming although Grilled always threatened, as Se-Hong Baek and Jeong-Hwa Jung received late cautions for the home team. Hjortlind was guilty of not passing to his teammates in better positions late on, as he chose instead to drive an unlikely goal into the side netting.
