Boiling Hot
Zhao Glitters
Grilled recovered from their Masters disappointment readily enough, as they battered V-ATPase to return to winning ways in the league. The visitors stuck close until the final twenty minutes, but ended up falling to braces from
Zhao Jing Wei and
Chow Ying Lee.
V-ATPase were coming off an impressive 11-0 league victory over Young Tigers, though they were without influential Czech central midfielder Marian Gano, who was sent off late. In his absence, Neil Too transitioned to a 4-4-2, with Tan Lee Kok trusted at rightback against an again-ebullient
Low Aik Jia.
While others would score more, the Birds' undisputed heartbeat was
Tian Yonghang, who set the Sarajevo defeat behind him once he stepped onto the pitch at The Cooking Pot. What followed was one of the most incredible individual ninety minutes ever by a Grilled player, as Tian bordered on completely unplayable at times.
It was the sort of day where he was two steps ahead of anyone else, and it took all of Carles Pau's determination for him to keep up. The effort was too much to bear, however, and Tian manufactured a clear run inside for Low in the eighth minute with a prescient backheel. Low squared it unselfishly, and
Zhao Jing Wei fired past both Lau Teck Lee and the last-ditch recovery of Tan.
V-ATPase stuck together admirably at this, and fought a disciplined rearguard action, and with some doubling-up contained the threat of Tian. It helped that
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim remained a pale imitation of himself, as otherwise they might have been swamped.
Their reward was a counterattacking leveller, which came after a slide-rule pass from
Woon Shun An came back off the crossbar on Zhao's piledriver. Iranian centreback Rambod Baroutiha kept his wits about him to spot Stig Brix racing upfield unhindered, and picked him out with an accurate long pass for a most direct goal.
The preponderance of chances were still Grilled's, and they restored their lead through
Chow Ying Lee, who bundled it in after Low lost Tan yet again on the left. This was what they held until half-time, and in all honesty, the visitors had to count their blessings at being merely one down.
Low would fade gradually in the second half after his many energy-sapping sprints, but by this time his teammates were ready to take over the attacking burden. With V-ATPase grimly resigned to soaking the pressure, the Birds switched to a patient low-risk probing style, and in the 69th minute made it 3-1 through a classic passing combination concluded by Zhao.
It was open season now, and a zigzagging exchange between Tian and Chow allowed the latter to make it four in the 76th; and who else but Tian would complete the scoring, after
Wong Ping Shun's bullet header was redirected onto the bar by Lau?
With the points in the bank, a haggard-looking Mohd Safri was for once quite willing to be replaced, as
Pompeo Bellamoli came in for him with two minutes remaining. The same went for
Clément Meyer, who had been dependable but not especially creative in his domestic debut.
