Wer And Tear
Five Star Tian
Tian Yonghang started the new season with a bang, as he scored five in a game for the first time in his career, and passed Ulf Hjortlind into sixth place in the Grilled all-time stakes. werwinner themselves set a mark by encountering the Birds for the third time in the opening round, after consecutive meetings in seasons 47 and 48, but they fared no better as their aggregate in this matchup became 0-31.
There were handshakes all around before kick-off, which was unsurprising given that eighteen of the twenty-two starters were unchanged from six seasons ago; There was no such Christmas spirit once the whistle blew, though, as the Birds were eager to get the blood flowing, after their recent poor patch.
Of course, few in attendance actually believed that the plucky amateurs could contain Grilled's forwards, and indeed it took only 18 minutes before all three had gotten on the scoresheet.
Chow Ying Lee went first with a strong boot, Tian came onto
Low Aik Jia's searching cross, before Mohd Safri lurked long enough on the right for
Zhao Jing Wei to find him.
Tian would complete his 12th hat-trick by the half-hour mark, and
Hilal Bakhtiar then came through with a neat left-footed finish after a barren season. werwinner goalie Choy Chin De even ruefully patted Bakhtiar after that one, which was perfectly understandable given how one-sided the game had been.
There was no letting up after the break, and Chow and Tian again struck one after the other. Neither of them could claim the most outstanding strike of the day, however, after
Colby Awyong wowed with a stunning acrobatic kick over his own shoulder, something that he has emphatically not been known for.
The hosts were taking it well enough, with Tham Huat Kian reassuring Tian that he wasn't hurt after the Grilled forward had tripped him up, though that was not enough to save Tian from a card. No matter, as Tian got his historic fifth in the 72nd minute, following
Wong Ping Shun's pinpoint free-kick that took it to double digits.
