Red Rouges Rampant
Jonsson Jingle
Early monsoon winds brought enough rain to soak a desert and kept all but some two thousand hardy viewers from Gamma Stadium. Grilled Birds had invited The Rouges from merrie England to be their opponents this day, and they displayed bold red and black colours on the mud-strewn brown grounds. As with the week before, Grilled played Chiew-Yen and Yunos to little effect against a back three well-led by talented young sweeper, home favourite John Inglis. Yaroslav Dubrovskiy, even more callow than Inglis, and with a physique resembling the Russian bear of his homeland, and Fazil Gökalp, a professional of five seasons originally of former Turkish Cup holders KARSIYAKALI, kept Inglis free of work for much of the game. Grilled did have the best of the early game, and slogged through the mud to produce a series of possible chances, culmulating in
Chai Yew-Hoe dancing past a wrongfooted Gökalp for the opener. Grilled's defensive woes continue with
Ding Sun-Nee put out of commission by a bad slip, and The Rouges were swiftly rallied by Dubrovskiy's strong movement to their response by Patrik Persson after Swedish forward Höstsjö delivered a beautiful outswinger to his forehead. Belgian winger Boris Trannoy followed fellow flankman Curro Rueda into the referee's black book after it was adjudged that his shoulder charge was a bit too hard.
Grilled began to slow down faster than Rouges in the waterlogged field, and Seng-kar resorted to using his hands to keep up with Boris, an act which did not escape the lineman's eyes. Many thought Yunos had gone a long way towards giving Grilled the lead again when Australian custodian Brooks Carter clattered into him during a scramble for the ball, but his claim was immediately dismissed by the referee to the dismay of the home fans. The muttering had barely died down when Jonsson hit what was to be the match winner after slaloming past bin Che Lah and Siu-Cheung, a nice piece of individual skill in unpromising conditions. Rueda in comparism never really found his footing, ending up more than one with mud in his face. Höstsjö probably didn't thank the weather either, as his spot kick after Siu-Cheung had jostled him to his knees in the six-yard box got slowed tremendously by the puddles in front of goal, leaving a grateful Balencia to collect it with ease.
Lan Tuan-Mu single-handedly foiled a couple of dangerous moves, to allow Grilled to suffer defeat by the single goal.
