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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 51 | W | 6 - 4 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 51 | L | 4 - 1 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 50 | L | 0 - 6 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Mutual Shelling
Antoine Near Clinch
Scallop Soccer Team showed that they were good value for their current league position, as they came away with a share of the spoils from The Cooking Pot. Although the Birds were as masterful in midfield as they had ever been, the visitors operated intelligently to limit Grilled to a handful of clear chances, and were even on track for all three points before
Zhu Changchun preserved
Djan Bacelar's unbeaten record.
While Scallop had gone into the match with an impressive six wins on the trot, there was the perception that they were not being taken completely seriously by longtime observers, due to their league victories coming against a waning Yew Tea, and a V-ATPase team that was still finding their feet.
This would be to severely underestimate Scallop, however, who achieved what they did despite maintaining a modest wage bill of barely over half a million; Italian goalkeeper Claudio Fasani is their highest-paid man at some S$100000 a week, while a reliance on locals as their core has allowed shrewd Spanish player-coach Ignacio Guergue to keep costs down, while producing the results.
This said, Grilled still had to be favourites at home, with the attendance of 83101 they drew the highest since 84167 came to watch CharlesCheesePie, some five seasons back. The spectators would not be disappointed, as the sunny conditions meant that the technicians out there could apply their silky skills to the fullest extent.
Among that class of players,
Tian Yonghang stood out, as much of his early exploits involved tormenting Scallop skipper Tarcisio Fulcini. The Swiss rightback, while a force to contend with at corners, was distinctly uncomfortable at being challenged on the ground, and only excellent initiative by Fasani prevented Tian from greatly embarassing him in the 17th minute.
The Birds kept their attacks up, and
Wong Ping Shun nearly assisted
Woon Shun An ten minutes later, after finally getting to the goalline despite the watchful eyes of Carlo Gambardella. Wong swung in a menacing cross that Woon charged in from outside the penalty area to get solidly behind, but his powerful header bounced inches wide.
While Scallop were caught unprepared then, the air remains one of their strengths, and this showed after they won their second corner in the 34th minute. Homegrown favourite Rahul Naicker put it right where Gambardella wanted it, at the corner of the six-yard box, and his expert glancing header over
Ling Fuquan sailed beyond
Wong Tian Han.
This was disquieting for the crowd, who felt that Grilled were working steadily towards the opener, but they were reassured when their team equalised soon enough. Again, it was Wong who created the hole in Scallop's defence, and this time
Gene Filippone arrived at the far side to meet the low cross with a calm finish.
With that, the sides went inti half-time level, but the home fans were in for another rude shock as the visitors took the lead again within two minutes of the restart. There appeared little danger as Scallop played the ball leisurely in the middle, until Lee Ze Shi suddenly broke forward.
He laid it on to Moris Silvestri, who then took
Rashid bin Ahmad out completely with a blind wonderpass for Antoine Clinch, who came out of nowhere. It was about as slick a sequence as you would see anywhere in the country, and
Wong Tian Han spread himself to no avail as Clinch fired strongly around him.
Mission accomplished, the cany Scallop reverted to holding mode, and dared the Birds to go at them. This had been the downfall of many a side before them - but these visitors knew what they were doing. At least until the 83rd, when
Zhu Changchun let rip, after the Grilled forwards finally clicked and bamboozled the opposition defence.
This got the crowd right behind them, but although the volume coming from the stands could not be faulted, Grilled could not find the winner before time ran out on them.
Abdul bin Jantan and
Qassem Madaini entered for the final push, but Abdul wound up giving the ball away in extra time, and the visitors were satisfied with stroking it about until the whistle.
