Marine Scare
Chow Saves Day
The Birds went two behind to Pulau Ubin club Marine Rovers FC in the fifth round of the Cup, and endured some dicey minutes before their strikers bailed them out. The Mariners can still take pride in stretching Grilled's first team to their limits, however, and should be able to look forward to returning to Division Three in due order.
Against a Rovers side that had won their last four games, including a comprehensive 3-1 against UEFA in the last round, assistant coach Luis Alcántara was taking no chances, and successfully appealed to field a close to full strength side, with the possible exception of
lu Zunwen in defence, alongsize
Liang Liyong.
The under-development Laguna Fields was again filled to near-capacity, with the supporters loudly pinning their aspirations on prolific 36 year-old Polishman Alberth Sahlan, tasked with playing at the point of a solid 4-5-1. They might have been short on big names, but as the 10-0 thrashing of East Coast Corsairs on Sunday hammered in, Indonesian coach Kurusetra Wurjanto has found them a very effective system.
This was in effect sooner than even the home fans hoped, as the Rovers used the width very well, fulfilling their objective of spreading Grilled's players.
Shiya Shaahee would not be restrained down the right, which played right into their books; Israeli winger Barak Avidar had seen enough of this to pick his moment, which came in the ninth minute as Shaahee lost himself up top. Fuad Luqman instantly attacked the space he left behind, and Avidar popped up in support for a direct opener.
Grilled were not that affected, having given up their share of first goals in the Cup, but the Rovers then piled on with a second in minutes. Backed by the frenzied home support, they darted around Grilled's final third with purpose, and
lu Zunwen wound up absent-mindedly tripping Sahlan, before realising that he was no longer in midfield. Faroese captain Poul Hans Sólheim, who once commanded a S$12 million transfer fee from Spanish club at.gil y gil, took him time placing the ball, before blasting it past
Edmund Kryus.
There was real belief going around Laguna Fields now, and the Birds were in danger of conceding a third the way things were going. Rovers didn't look like letting up, and Grilled were beginning to fade completely when
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim stepped into his familiar role as saviour.
The former national U-20 striker has been keeping a low profile of late, but his sheer class came through in the 29th minute, when Shaahee finally peeled free of the clingy Hernán Damit Amaya with some difficulty. The cross in was less than ideal, but Mohd Safri twirled exquisitely to bring it around to his better right side, before sending a grounder past Dário Lampreia with a swing of his hips.
Liang Liyong had been struggling for some time before that with his hamstring, and the goal provided Alcántara with the break he needed to bring Liang off permanently for
Rashid bin Ahmad. This brief interruption done with, Mohd Safri went back to business, tearing a path through Rovers' central defence to tie things up in the 35th minute.
Mohd Safri certainly wasn't the most popular man at Laguna Fields after that, not that he minded, and Grilled suddenly looked like their usual selves. It didn't help the Rovers that they had fielded a relatively aged team in their non-midfield positions, and the Birds became less threatened as their opponents found the need to pace themselves.
The second half began with a full-fledged Grilled offensive, and
Zhao Jing Wei came within an inch of extending his scoring streak to three games, as he cut loose with a chancy drive that struck the bottom of the crossbar with some luck. However, it bounced down onto the goalline, at which Lampreia recovered and unceremoniously kicked it out of bounds.
It was still all very much in the balance as Rovers pieced together a few attacks of their own, up till when
Ling Fuquan made one for
Chow Ying Lee in the 57th minute. Granted a berth on the left wing, Ling was not shy in getting forward, though not with much distinction until this point. This time, however, Dion Dannemann had committed himself to supporting Sólheim, and Ling managed to squeeze it in for Chow to fling himself at.
Wurjanto wouldn't be caught slow to adjust, as he took goalscorer Avidar off for the very nippy Hans Larsson. This proved an inspired substitution as Larsson immediately put
lu Zunwen on the defensive with a sprint past him, and the Swede would come very close in the 77th minute, charging unstoppably down the left before hitting a looping shot that dropped just over the bar.
The home side were getting extremely impatient, and gave it one last mighty push in the last ten minutes. Sahlan tried all his tricks, and when they didn't come off, revealed that he had a nasty side too with a rough challenge on Rashid that had the defender scrambling to grab the ball as he was forced over. Referee Gian Conino had had enough of Sahlan's antics, and flashed his first and only yellow card of the match.
Marine Rovers had one final great opportunity when a late, late corner was helped on by Diederick Baudelet into the middle of the six-yard box, with the Belgian centreback having to swim above
Tian Yonghang to get to that. Incredibly, it deflected to rookie midfielder Luqman with Kryus stuck in no man's land, and Luqman instinctively poked at it, only to see the ball fly right into Zhao, who had flung his body across the line of the shot.
Luqman collapsed face-first to the grass as the realisation dawned that Rovers' last chance to advance had probably gone, and he was proven right as Grilled played the remaining time out with deserved caution.
