Maltese Lions Felled
Borup Naughty
Grilled landed in Malta, a small island-state even when compared to tiny Singapore, in the morning and travelled up north to Naxxar to engage the resident Naxxar Lions in a friendly. Naxxar Lions kept to an adventurous 3-4-3 despite heavy rains and winds sweeping the field, which caused Grilled's direct approach to pay dividends.
There was no room at all for any fancy dribbling, since the ball would get stuck every other kick. Passes, very short or very long, were the order of the day, and Grilled's Jie Siong strung a bunch of them together with his midfielders before hitting the jackpot with a wicked spin on an undistinguished strike. Belgian custodian Ralph Karlin went up for a routine save, before a chance gust blew the ball a metre off course and into the net.
Quah didn't enjoy the conditions at all, as the muddy pitch broke up a couple of his promising runs. Naxxar moved up in numbers on the right and hammered through, but midfielder Eric Cascun's shot was wild due to the sliding in of
Marcus Liehner just in time.
With visibility reduced to a small portion of the playing field at intervals, a rugby-like style emerged where the footballers brought the ball up in small groups. This encouraged the defending team to charge in to disrupt the line, and
Au-Yong Siu-Yue went a bit overboard when he came in from behind in the 20th minute. It could have been a red card, but he was let off with a yellow and a very stern warning.
Paullin never stopped running, though there was a miniscule probability that any of his teammates could actually pick him out from any further than ten metres in the driving rain. He did trouble local defender Giovanni Baldocchi somewhat, but Baldocchi had the heft to get Paullin off the ball when it mattered.
Baldocchi got tangled up with Borup in the 56th minute when the youngster had an open path to goal, but it turned out that Borup had gone down a bit too easily for the referee's liking. Borup understandably protested his innocence, but was quietened abruptly when the yellow card was flashed.
Hjortlind softened the blow when he doubled Grilled's lead on a good fading ball from Han Kok, which slowed enough towards the end for Hjortlind to get to it before Karlin, and poke it between the posts. Hjortlind wasted a much better chance soon after when, having time and space, instead totally messed up his first touch and belatedly fired a weak attempt wide.
Hobson came in from the right side in the 69th minute to calmly place in a textbook third goal at the far post, before a rather ugly incident between Borup and a Naxxar defender saw Borup sent off with thirteen minutes remaining. Promising Italian teenager Renzo Caimi, who has yet to open his accounts with Naxxar in the league, might have earned a confidence-boosting goal but ended up launching his shot into orbit.
