Decked In The Head
Making Up Lost Time
Grilled Birds kept their championship hopes alive with a 3-1 home victory against leaders The Void Deck, with
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim back at his best. After a long fallow period, the Number Eighteen came up with both the opener and the finisher in a turgid affair, as the visitors concentrated on obtaining any result that would see them remain odds-on favourites.
Granted, Void have built their success on the base of a solid defence, embellished by an ability to both attack conventionally on the flanks or shoot from range, as required. They opted for the former this time, with Slovak forward Rudolf Harciník quite obviously making himself a target for the speedy pair of Paolo Lo Bartolo and Aleksander Burczyk.
This was clearly aimed towards the Birds' most glaring weakness, but instead of being drawn into a battle that they would probably be destined to lose, Grilled set their sights on not letting it happen in the first place. Their dangerously high line was surely tempting for the Void wingmen, but with
Zhao Jing Wei dictating midfield, Void could hardly sniff the ball to begin with.
For all that, they displayed precious little vulnerability in defence either, and it took all the imagination of Mohd Safri to breach it; despite Antonio Gerardo Paoletti sticking to his heels, Mohd Safri managed to rotate onto his weaker left foot, and struck true with a stylish volley on the turn that Hungarian goalkeeper Tibor Bodnár was a second too late to.
Their self-belief shaken, The Void Deck conceded a corner from Grilled's next attack, which was punched away by Bodnár, but only to
Tian Yonghang. Tian retreated and evaded to the side as the Void defenders rushed, and pulled off a gripping rocket that glanced off the crossbar.
The visitors were living dangerously for awhile, but to captain Burczyk's credit, he managed to get them to settle down. Some excellent tackles in midfield broke Grilled's momentum somewhat, and in the 39th minute, Robban Kjellholt came out tops against
Zhu Changchun as the duo clashed in the air for
Gene Filippone's ill-advised lob from defence.
Aware that he had made a bad mistake, Filippone tried to cover for it, but Void were waiting for just this moment, and Kjellholt had plenty of ready support. With several teammates surging past him immediately, the Swede selected the unmarked Ade Brown, who stunned
Wong Tian Han with a magnificent first-time diving header.
One-all was a scoreline that suited The Void Deck just fine, and while not exactly a total disaster for the Birds yet, it meant that the clock was swiftly running down on their title aspirations. This must have been made clear to the players during half-time, judging from how they found and additional gear for the second half.
The visitors were prepared for that, and dealt with the incoming crosses comfortably. Harciník even came close to putting paid to the Birds more than once, and could have had he been quicker over ten metres. It was certainly getting tense for the over 80000 at The Cooking Pot, most of whom were fervently wishing for something to happen.
It finally did in the 68th minute, as a chaotic Grilled advance threw Void's previously-pristine defensive formation into disarray. They had a man tasked with each of Grilled's attackers, but were at a loss when Filippone would up as the furthest man forward. Mario Loffredo made a valiant attempt at an interception, but it was not enough as the Swiss defender received Tian's pass, and went on to drill it past Bodnár.
Now, it was the visitors' turn to be pressured, and they began reverting to going at it from distance. These telegraphed strikes were easy enough for
Wong Tian Han, though, but they did have some effect at the end -
Zhao Jing Wei winced after taking a Mariusz Ginko special to the torso in the 76th minute, and signalled to come off after a few painful steps.
Clément Meyer came on in a jiffy, and any concern at the departure of Zhao was swiftly assuaged as Grilled extended their lead in short order.
Ling Fuquan struck a glorious fifty-yard ball to
Low Aik Jia, who was waiting on the left touchline, and Low demonstrated astounding control by sprinting right along it before squaring. This was Mohd Safri's bread and butter, and the striker made no mistake with his tight header, in at the near bottom corner.
The visitors had apparently had enough, and other than several more long shots in the final ten minutes, did little to challenge the result.
