Stars Shot Down
Chow Too Much
The Birds concluded the first half of the season three points clear of the chasing pack, with a comprehensive 4-0 win over struggling All Stars Team. Visiting head coach Fortunato Verde had made clear his intention to disrupt Grilled before kick-off, but the sheer speed of
Chow Ying Lee and
Low Aik Jia rendered those measures moot.
Zhao Jing Wei was rested for the midweek cup match, with
Clément Meyer filling his usual role, while
Ling Fuquan was again dropped after some worrying lapses in training. Stars for their part started a 3-5-2, but their players were clearly out to break things up as their first priority.
This didn't go down well with the bulk of the near-70000 fans who had turned up, even if the tactic was effective for a while. Unfortunately for Stars, their pressing depended on being able to cover Grilled's attackers closely, which was easier said than done with livewire
Low Aik Jia, who had Ahmet Bolkan constantly on his toes with his constant running into space.
Bolkan did an admirable job of keeping up for the most part, but the gritty Turk simply didn't have the pace to catch up after Low threw him off in the 14th minute. The winger threw Stars' backline into confusion as he crossed over to the other flank, opening it up for
Zhu Changchun to tap it over to him, before being spot-on with his shot.
Gene Filippone nearly added to the lead three minutes on, but had his arching header sent over the crossbar at the last moment by a backpedalling Harald Colman. Stars for their part managed to get Irish forward Brian Kearney in a couple of good positions, but the Birds retained the advantage, and it was again sheer speed that saw
Chow Ying Lee break through to score in the 31st minute.
Verde threw his hands up at that one, as he watched his carefully-wrought system destroyed by individual quality, even as his players contemplated yet another league defeat. Still, they continued chasing the ball determinedly, with skipper Costinel Puşcaşu doing his bit by containing
Wong Ping Shun as few have done before him.
Chow came close with a volley onto the bar in the 76th minute, before Kearney showed his commitment to the cause by taking a booking for delaying a potentially dangerous quick free-kick after that. However, all the running about had caused many of the Stars players to slow, and Andrei Udrică for one had nothing left in the tank when Chow challenged him in the 82nd minute, leading to the third.
Job accomplished,
Djan Bacelar withdrew
Wong Tian Han to give
Dan Seng a rare appearance, with
Qassem Madaini following a while later. Zhu and Mohd Safri had the time to find the woodwork with their late efforts, either side of
Tian Yonghang making it eleven league goals for the season coming through the middle.
