False Wrapup
Musa Meddling
The Birds suffered a painful last-minute reverse in their 750th competitive match, with Rapala FC's Musa bin Abd Kadir scrambling home a long ball to grab his team a share of the points. It was the first draw in eight matches between the sides, and the four goals set a new record for lowest haul from the fixture.
Grilled were fancied to take this one after they had battled to a perhaps fortunate away win over the same opponents last week, particularly with Rapala coach Irwandy bin Sarman keeping an identical lineup.
Grilled's response was to give captain
Qassem Madaini a rest, ending his astonishing streak of 43 consecutive league starts, with
Rashid bin Ahmad rewarded for his recent performances by being given the prized central defence berth.
Shiya Shaahee was the other change,
lu Zunwen taking over on the wing.
The usual give-and-take marked the occasion, and it was the visitors who sounded the first horn with a raking drive from Daniel Leaşcu from the left edge of the penalty area.
Edmund Kryus got to that ambitious effort without too much ado.
The crowd were beginning to get restless when
Rashid bin Ahmad celebrated his selection with his first league goal for Grilled, having moved from his post to the left wing as an especially intricate attack wore on. His pass into the middle being blocked, Rashid elected to just hammer it, and to his delight saw the ball blaze through Kuki Ruivo's gloves.
After Musa bin Abd Kadir got booked for a late tackle, shots came thick and fast as both sets of forwards fancied their chances, but in a departure from previous games few found their mark.
Chow Ying Lee had probably the best of the bad bunch as he dealt a right stinger towards the bottom corner, only for it to wobble at the end and come off the inside of the post.
It was a wonder how the score stayed at merely one-nil by the break, the total number of attempts well exceeding twenty. Grilled were probably the more disappointed at not having pressed their possessional advantage, which Rapala almost made them pay for in the 64th minute.
Woon Shun An had taken Joni Huhtamäki down just outside the penalty area, which had José Alberto Nilo preparing a long run-up for what looked to be one of his famous piledrivers. However, Nilo wound up chipping it with heavy backspin as an informed Pei Jingming dashed for it, only for Pei to fail to connect as the ball went backwards upon hitting the ground.
The match looked destined for a highly-improbable one-goal finish, and the Birds became more and more interested in just preserving their lead as time went by. It seemed a good tactic as Rapala struggled to press deep, but paid off in the 84th minute when Mohd Firdaus bin Rozi collided heavily with
Rashid bin Ahmad in a mid-air challenge.
While it looked like an accident, referee Dalibor Šrámek awarded the free-kick to Rapala while not booking Rashid, and Nilo dispensed with the flourishes this time by slamming the free-kick straight at the defensive wall. To
Edmund Kryus' horror, it went straight through the the gap that appeared between
Zhao Jing Wei and
Abdul bin Jantan as they leaped in unison, and left him no chance at all.
The crowd had barely begun to be depressed when Grilled rampaged from the restart, and
Zhu Changchun restored the jubliant mood with a superb strike on the move. It was the midfielder's fourth goal in five meetings with Rapala, and appeared in all likelihood to be the game-winner.
However, it all went bottle-shaped from here on.
Niculae Stanca tried to take precious seconds off the clock by introducing
Leong Wan Kang for
Chow Ying Lee, but this didn't stop Kryus from suffering a heavy blow to the gut from his own defender when trying to get a long ball.
The Grilled medics tried to get Kryus back on his feet, but after a few minutes, the match officials decided that the game would have to continue with or without him. At this, Stanca chose to give reserve goalkeeper
Dan Seng his big break, only for Musa bin Abd Kadir to expose his hesitancy by claiming a Hail Mary pass and sliding it beneath the heartbroken youngster.
The Birds might yet have won it had acting skipper
Tian Yonghang made the most of their final offensive, but the current league scoring leader could only nick it right at Ruivo, and to top it off
lu Zunwen twisted his ankle in the build-up and had to be stretchered off.
