Nightmare Sealed
Zhao Can't Stop
Days after his hat-trick against CharlesCheesePie in the Cup, reigning Player of the Season
Zhao Jing Wei kept the flow going with another two against Dream Seals, as Grilled claimed their first league clean sheet of the campaign with a no-frills 5-0 victory against Dream Seals at The Cooking Pot.
It was the first clash between two of Singapore's oldest clubs, who have weathered a total of 79 seasons between them, and as such was especially eagerly anticipated by the longer-serving set of fans. Competitively, however, it has not been as even from recent form, with the visitors yet to gain a single point from their six tries thus far.
Dream Seals did have no concerns other than Polish wingman Kazimierz Kurz, but their woes have generally been agreed to stem from an overall deficit in quality, something that head coach Idan Klinger has not been able to compensate for, despite his past scoring heroics. Their best hope lay in Czech goalkeeper and captain Marek Sedlák, who the press suggested would need to be in divine condition if they were to get anything from this one.
For their part, the Birds appeared to give them a slight opening, as they put
Ling Fuquan on the right, and moreover had the midfield and forward line interchange freely, with the former actually spending more time up front. Of course, the thing was that the likes of Zhao were very decent all-rounders to begin with, as he demonstrated in the 29th minute with an instinctive chip over Sedlák, after Ling drove one in.
Actually, the Seals players had been doing okay for most of the first half, with main midfielders Thorsten Luttenberger and Bienvenido Mir López holding their own. In fact, López was so good at protecting the ball that
Ling Fuquan was booked in the 41st minute for kicking his shins fruitlessly. That made Ling's fifth this season already, which is probably a record, albeit unwanted.
Ling then put the other side of his rather eccentric game on show, as he came around the outside of the Seals backline in tandem with
Tian Yonghang bringing the ball down the middle. The Grilled skipper didn't miss the option offered, and the masterfully-skimmed pass with the outside of his boot was forcefully converted by Ling.
A two-goal half-time lead was about what the content crowd had expected, and the match resumed without too much ado. Indeed, the Birds' support went softer on the away contingent than is usually the case, perhaps in recognizance of the hard times they were facing, not wholly deservedly. Seals' former Titus Titanium IV point man Song Hui Kian made a couple of courageous solo forays, but was expertly marshalled by the returning
Qassem Madaini.
Grilled's own forwards hadn't lost their touch despite operating from deeper in, and in
Chow Ying Lee's case, it could be argued that this simply gave him more time to work up to his full speed. Jean-Pierre De Bruyn was in two minds whether to try and halt Chow as the Number Ten steamed towards him, and the decision was taken out of his hands when Chow shimmied past in a flash and rolled the third goal into the corner.
On
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim's end, he stuck to his favourite finishing move, when
Ling Fuquan did a more than passable impersonation of an attacking winger five minutes later. The cross seemed to be unfortunately slightly overhit, but Mohd Safri sprung amazingly to get the merest of touches on it - which was sufficient to send the ball careening into the net.
The Seals players were at this stage mostly resigned, though Song continued to pose enough of a threat that
Gene Filippone had to take the first yellow in a Grilled shirt to keep him from getting through. Once again, however, that only served as a prelude to another Grilled goal, with
Low Aik Jia putting it in nicely for Zhao.
There was little more that the home support could want, as their side were poised to finish with no injuries, suspensions or goals conceded, and they turned
Rashid bin Ahmad's late arrival into a thanksgiving ceremony of sorts, with the result a foregone conclusion.
