Tigers Trapped
Madaini Leads Way
Grilled continued getting their campaign on the right track, as they comprehensively suppressed the spirited Young Tigers at home. The Birds never looked in danger after
Woon Shun An gave them the go-ahead in the 21st minute, and some good individual displays from the Tigers' men were made inconsequential by Grilled's merciless attacking attitude.
The Birds made a few changes from the one that did so well against SpartanSG, with
Rashid bin Ahmad making only his second league start since his arrival from Einziger Europapokalsieger der DDR, and this mostly out of necessity with
Ling Fuquan suspended. Tactically,
Shiya Shaahee's star continued rising as he was fielded on the right wing after a string of steady contributions, while
lu Zunwen got reshuffled to take care of the left side.
It had not been the return to Division Two that Young Tigers had hoped for, as they let slip a win against SpartanSG, before Zambree schooled them 5-1 in a tale of very bad luck. They reconfigured with Aníbal Vieira sacrificed for the pace of Witold Bergmański in central defence, while Glauco Redavid lost his place to Constantino Largoet at wingback.
The Tigers' best period came early, with Carlos Escuteiro a real handful for the slightly rusty Rashid on his flank. The tricksy Portuguese tried his patience with his frequent touches, and it was just as well that they were short on personnel in the box. This was much less of a problem for Grilled, and a messy push in the 21nd minute succeeded due to
Woon Shun An pressing up through the flood of bodies to scuff it in.
The visitors were still full of energy, and they might have equalised in short order with Swiss distributor Charles Coiffier pushed to the right and rounded Madaini. His early strike after
Edmund Kryus came out looked like it would nestle in the far bottom corner, but the savvy Madaini had wasted no time in racing back, and slid in perfectly to intercept it on the line.
With Rashid a conventional stay-back centreback by temperament, Madaini felt it safe to indulge more in bringing the ball out, a task in which he had previously deferred to the absent Ling. With Shiya now relishing in the space left behind by Escuteiro's forays, Madaini even found himself in the clear with 27 minutes gone, and he cut inside Bergmański with excellent timing before spectacularly putting it between the onrushing Michaël Hautin's legs.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim is something of a specialist in twisting the knife in, and the Tigers' despair only deepened when the no-nonsense forward opened his new league account right from the kickoff, after lu's wild cross happened to fall in just the right area for him.
Zhao Jing Wei's competitive streak was not diminished by the comfortable lead, however, and he followed with a stinging tackle on Tigers captain Paweł Sucharzewski that felt more like a warning signal than anything. Referee Óscar didn't see the need of that, though, and booked the Number Five.
It was not looking at all good for the visitors, with Largoet looking drained in the heat, but Camilo Fernández showed no signs of calling upon Redavid. Fortunately for him, lu proved to be still learning the ropes of threatening out wide, and he didn't capitalize on an obvious path opening for him in the 55th minute. By the time he realised, the best window had passed, and he ended up firing well over.
Not that it mattered with Grilled pulling all the right strings, and Donnie van der Ven cutting an isolated figure. It then was all over when
Chow Ying Lee combined brilliantly with Shaahee down the right to create a fourth out of next to nothing, a fitting end to a match that was dominated throughout.
