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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 48 | D | 2 - 2 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Individual Accolades
Forward Final
There would be no repeat of the comeback draw in the group stages as Grilled roared to clear victory over Arcturules in the SCC (Individual) tournament finals, with the strikers getting on the job with five of the six goals scored.
Seytek Djekshenkulov's set-piece contribution was perhaps the most important of them all, though, coming as it did when Arcturules were angling for the lead.
There were few changes on either end since the last meeting, with Grilled featuring Tzonkov instead of Madaini, while Belgian newcomer Nicolaas Vanderhoydonck and former Holy Satans trainee Mohd Azaruddin Yusuf made their entrance for the opponents. The two immediately decamped to their right flank as Arcturules clearly intended to tire Tzonkov out, but this strategy was foiled due to them simply not receiving the ball, as Grilled eagerly hogged possession against their thinly-spread midfield.
Chow Ying Lee was the man to watch in the initial exchanges, as he tried continually to get behind Arcturules' well-drilled defence without fear of failure. He eventually did carry the ball through the flat backline in the 14th minute, releasing a hasty chip moments before being taken out by Roger Vissenaekens. As luck would have it, the slight nick it took wrongfooted Guérin, who could only throw his hands up as the ball spun into an empty net.
Arcturules appeared to be prepared for this eventuality, however, and diligently kept on with their policy of containment. It wasn't easy going against Grilled's unusually mobile and fluid frontline, with
Tian Yonghang's lob ten minutes later probably a goal against a lesser goalkeeper; it did directly lead to the equalizer, as Guérin's quick clearing kick was headed back into the middle by Yusuf, after Tzonkov had been drawn to him out wide. There was nobody to stop Fu Lai Yeng when the ball was passed on to him by Jesus in a two-on-one, and the wingback smoothly put it past Stacey.
There was a real bubbling of belief on the Arcturules side after that goal, and had Djekshenkulov not hit back straightaway, it could have grown into something legitimately threatening. As it was, Mohd Safri won a corner from the restart, and Djekshenkulov soared to head the corner over Vissenaekens, who was standing at the post. The young defender did well to get his head behind it and stop it from hitting the net, but the referee had by then blown for the goal. Two minutes of fierce argument from the hot-blooded rookie followed, which ended grudgingly only after a booking for dissent.
They always seemed distracted after that, and
Tian Yonghang profited happily by slotting a third in after running interference between the defenders. Vissenaekens nearly took matters into his own hand with a bold effort on a counter, but his lack of shooting practice stood out glaringly, and Tian showed him how it should be done, pouncing on a loose backpass to make it 4-1 to Grilled at half-time.
Grilled had been playing like they had one hand on the trophy before the whistle blew, which was perhaps justified, and
Niculae Stanca attempted to keep their heads on the job by having the team spend the interval seating around the dugout. This slightly extreme measure worked, with the Birds beginning the second half the more sprightly team, and the newly-adventurous
Lin Jungui tested Guérin well with a powerful if undisguised blast in the 54th minute.
Hopes for an unlikely renaissance fell apart when the passionate Vissenaekens collected a second yellow card for unthinkingly raising his hands to ward off a shot, and while the free-kick that followed came to nothing, Mohd Safri soon underlined the Birds' dominance with an easy tap-in after
Chow Ying Lee dashed through the still-adjusting defence. The slightly-unwarranted celebrations that followed saw Mohd Safri strip off his jersey to reveal a birthday message for his niece - fortunately for him, the referee missed that episode, perhaps because the T-shirt underneath was green too, and moreover hardly visible under the crush of teammates.
Mohd Safri wisely decided that a repeat of the stunt was unnecessary after chipping in the sixth goal a couple of minutes later, and it was all smooth sailing after that, with
lu Zunwen's booking swiftly forgotten by the celebrating Grilled support.
