Plugged In The Pug
Aykal At Attention
Grilled's cup-winning high didn't aid them against the title-chasing Pudgy Penguins, who continued their recovery from dropping six points to Be Champions FC by shutting out the Birds at home. To the great chagrin of most of the over 82000 who had turned up at The Cooking Pot, there would be no champagne football by their team. Instead, there was a lot of pedestrian dallying around, as the players never came close to approaching the heights they reached against Isle of Flames midweek.
On the face of it, Grilled had to be favourites, given that this Penguins side operated fairly similar to how Flames tend to - a very competent midfield backed by a tight defence, but both arguably a shade below the Birds' offerings, when at their best.
That latter point turned out to be critical, as there was little semblance of the urgency that had so suffused them in the cup final. Most of the personnel remained unchanged, save for
Ling Fuquan starting at the back, but it seemed a completely different side from that of a mere few days ago. In contrast, Penguins, led by cult hero Jian Xiaonan, were far more eager to make things happen.
Together with fellow former U-20 regular Li Li Long, Jian did the unglamorous but essential job of shielding his backline superbly, with
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim boxed off to the extent that he resorted to complaining about it to the referee.
Tian Yonghang, ever the more composed of the pair, went about his usual plotting from his withdrawn position, but found few good passes under Penguins' watchful eyes.
The visitors excelled at the other end too. Though they were fixated on guarding their own penalty area, they were also alert whenever a chance presented itself. With their wide midfielders playing more narrowly than usual to counter Grilled's strengths, it fell to the wingbacks to provide the width, and Greek Number Three Paschalis Ptolemeos for one switched faultlessly between his roles.
With Li having tracked back to get the ball off
Low Aik Jia in the twelfth minute, Penguins saw that the Birds' left side was near empty, and beat a furious pace through the available space. Some very clever interplay from Barnaba Irace dragged
Gene Filippone aside, while at the same time allowed Ptolemeos inside to beat
Wong Tian Han with a fine low drive.
The Birds did deserve to be level two minutes later, after they mustered up a brief burst of activity to win a corner. Taken short by
Wong Ping Shun, then helped on to the far post by
Zhu Changchun, it was then met with poise by
Zhao Jing Wei. Unfortunately, Zhao had played it a sliver too close, and his attempt rolled off the base of the post almost parallel to the goalline, upon which it was smothered by grateful Iraqi national team goalie Darawan Balikân.
The remainder of the half was fast-moving without actually being exciting, as Grilled went through the motions without offering the sort of novelty that could trouble this Penguins defence. It didn't help that the visitors were adept at pressing it from the front, and with the likes of Tunç Aykal falling back when required, the Birds found even mustering shots on target a chore.
Grilled did begin the second half slightly more stimulated, and they forced Penguins back in seriousness for perhaps the first time in the match. However,
Chow Ying Lee's dribble was well dealt with by Giorgio Polani, and
Ling Fuquan wound up getting booked for climbing all over Aykal in challenging for the return long ball. Luckily, Aykal blew the free-kick by misreading his strike partner's intentions.
This was more like it from the home team, and their supporters too warmed up to this step up in effort. It turned rather more optimistic for the Birds as they began to get closer to the Penguins' goal, but this wound up being mostly a tease as the visitors simply closed ranks.
Tian Yonghang had flashes of impressive insight, but they went nowhere due to a mix of stout defending and poor finishing.
When
Woon Shun An's magic volley in the 76th minute was somehow warded aside by a bicycle kick from Polani on the goalline, it could have been taken as a sign that this was just not going to be Grilled's day, and sure enough, they were then hit by a counter punch.
Just as the Birds were starting to pose a real threat, the patient Penguins had waited long enough, and were ready to make their move. This time, it was down the other flank, as former national player Tang Cheng Min took on
Wong Ping Shun, and won.
Ling Fuquan primed himself for the cross, but Tang went again the grain by pushing his way deeper in, before releasing it just in time for Tunç Aykal to shimmy it past a slightly slow
Wong Tian Han.
This was a stake to the Birds' hearts, and although
Chow Ying Lee managed a magnificent header five minutes later, the air of defeat had long hung about the stadium by then. In any case, Balikân would deny the Birds even the satisfaction of a consolation goal, as he sprang to tip that over the bar.