RageQUiT
Berényi Buries Birds
Grilled's issues manifested in a very ugly way indeed as they shipped five goals without reply to the previously-winless QUT FC; that they managed three after that was something of a miracle, but overall it remained an outing that raised many more questions than it answered.
With an eye on Charis FC in midweek,
Djan Bacelar brought a compact 3-5-2 to QUC FC Arena, with
Lee Lee Hao and
Clément Meyer acting as tucked-in wingers.
Wong Ping Shun was tried out at the back, and as the scoreline would attest to, it might not be his best position. QUT FC's Slovakian veteran Bence Berényi had endured a slow start, but found his calling bullying the defensively-naive Wong.
Worryingly,
Krystian Rykowski's body language was less than positive even during the warm-up, compounded by
Dan Seng's clean sheet in the Cup. On hindsight, it would probably have been better to have fielded the Pole for him to regain his confidence then, but it was too late for that as Rykowski promptly miskicked his first clearance.
It has been said that a football club is built from the back, and in this case, Grilled's spine was seriously out of alignment. The lack of authority permeated through soon enough, and it didn't help that Luis Viejo's 18th minute flick sailed right into the top corner.
Zhao Jing Wei tried to put his stamp on the game with some hard-boiled tactics, but this backfired after he was nearly sent off for his questionable hacking down of Lee Yeow Tong.
The Birds looked uninspired, and were taken to task for it.
Clément Meyer had functioned acceptably as a fullback in past games, but would be shown up by Martin Wendt, who beat the Frenchman with a simple stepover. His effort looked to be heading narrowly wide, though... until Rykowski dived in and spilled it back into play, whereupon the lurking Bence Berényi gleefully tucked it away.
Nothing was working on the offensive end either, as Grilled's supporters glumly contemplated
Wong Tian Han's return. QUT FC's Number One Francisco Martín Patau might not exactly be a household name, but he at least had the basics down pat, as seen when he stuck out a leg to prevent
Zhu Changchun's 34th minute strike from finding the net.
If nothing else, Rykowski was brave to stay on after the break, but he would plumb lower depths. Barely two minutes had passed when Berényi unleashed one from the edge of the area almost as if to test the poor man, and was amply rewarded as Rykowski got a hand to it, but not enough to stop it from rolling over his line.
Dan Seng was shown on camera looking increasingly impatient on the bench, while Bacelar deserved credit for keeping his face a mask.
Perhaps having already conceded the match, no change was made, save for a couple of ineffective quick pep-up lines from the captain. The fourth was at least not down to the goalkeeper, as the less-than-focused
Wong Ping Shun stroked a crossfield free-kick at
Gene Filippone after Luis Viejo had fouled him, only for it to be picked off by a very active Berényi.
Turkish winger Baran Kaban then made it 5-0 for QUT FC by outpacing a sluggish
Woon Shun An in the 69th, having been played on by substitute Dieter-Norbert Elpons; if the stadium had never been near capacity to begin with, the away section at least was emptying out fast, as many of the visiting fans quietly packed up their banners.
Which was a pity of a sort, as they would miss out on a quite remarkable revival. The hosts were getting a little complacent, and were slow to react as the Birds launched a long throw-in after Ilkka Lavento came on. Danni Myrvig had had little to do for most of the game, and was unprepared when
Chow Ying Lee streaked past him like a bat out of hell. Patau barely had time to move a muscle, before Chow hit it in.
QUT FC were understandably not overly bothered by that, but that consolation began to look slightly more dangerous very quickly. The restart saw Meyer do a fair impression of
Low Aik Jia as he did a push-and-run by the battered Lee Yeow Tong, only to have his attempted cross blocked out by Carl Svantesson.
Wong Ping Shun bent the corner in immediately, and the defenders were not even in position when
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim arrived to head it in unopposed.
Referee Magnus Claesson saw nothing amiss, and QUT FC restarted and duly had an indirect free-kick miss Berényi by inches. Their three-goal cushion still appeared safe enough - until
Tian Yonghang pulled another back with thirteen minutes still to go, as
Lee Lee Hao heard his skipper calling for it as the QUT backline tried to step up.
Unfortunately, there would be no grandstand finish as the hosts took the hint, and fell back on the boring-but-effective recourse of booting the ball out as often as possible.
Domenik Bögengang's S-League debut was perhaps not as loud as the club had hoped, but the classic German forward did muster up a shot on target in his two minutes on the pitch.