Olympus Scaled
Grigorov Gets Going
Grilled had to content themselves with a visit to the Småland region of Sweden instead of competing in the Singapore Cup final, and Division Five hosts Olympus took the brunt of their wrath. Assistant coach Luis Alcántara had a free hand in picking the side, and put out a 3-5-2 with the underplayed
Low Aik Jia and
Clark Won returning, but
Ang Leong Kum was again the pick of the lot with his devastating charges from midfield.
Olympus, who had attained the lofty heights of the fourth division last season, had Bulgarian 26 year-old Gencho Grigorov captaining their reserves, with their key men such as Werner-Juergen Weyde rested for the league - straight losses to leaders Ove Rangers have left them in fifth spot, and they face a critical match against mid-table rivals ONCE CALDAS this Sunday.
This didn't bode well for their friendly, but Olympus fared surprisingly well at the beginning. With Grilled trying to come to terms both with the weather, as well as the lesser-used lineup, only Ang's drive kept them from falling behind through much of the first half an hour. Aging Spanish defender
Joan Cisquell, less than two weeks from turning forty, fared poorly against the strength of hometown boy Adrian Pettersson, who forced him aside at will.
That led to Olympus' opener in the 34th minute, with Cisquell again coming up second best against Pettersson to a very contestable lob. The Olympus Number Nineteen smartly hooked it back for Grigorov, who drilled it in past a hesitating
Dan Seng at his near post.
That served to wake the Birds up, and they finally reached the levels that they were capable of. They were soon level through
Hilal Bakhtiar, who scored what will be one of the most memorable goals of his career with a loping run that eluded three defenders, before
Clément Meyer nodded in a dangling cross from the suddenly very productive
Low Aik Jia.
Olympus then threatened with Henrik Klangkvist's classy volley on the turn, but it rang off the foot of the post, and
Dan Seng booted it clear gratefully. The game then turned completely in the Birds' favour, as a magical no-look ball from
Ang Leong Kum gifted Low with a 44th minute tap-in, followed immediately by
Leong Wan Kang's chip from deep for 4-1.
Grilled then embarked on one last push for the half as Robert Scherzer contemplated blowing for time, which he nearly did before Nils Knutsson bundled Ang over in mid-dribble. The Grilled star took the free-kick quickly, and sent an alert
Rinor Isufi clear as the Olympus defenders waited for the whistle.
Isufi wouldn't wait too long for a second, as the Birds continued in like vein for the second half. With Jan Runesson finding it impossible to keep up with Low, who had played through an uncharacteristically slow start, the crosses kept flying in from the left, and Isufi had only to connect with one of them eventually.
Not even a hard foul on Klangkvist by
Clément Meyer was enough to spoil Grilled's momentum, as
Leong Wan Kang made it 7-1 immediately after that, courtesy of who else but Ang. The former Singapore youth international was completely bossing it by now, and it was all Grigorov could do to prevent him from running riot.
Still, it could well have gone into double digits, had it not been for a number of bad misses from the Birds.
Pompeo Bellamoli didn't make the most of his hard-won start when he lumped it over in a good position with 68 minutes gone. Not long afterwards, Low just had to pass it to the Italian for an easy finish, but this time it was the winger who inexplicably tried to run it in himself, and ate a top sliding tackle from Kristoffer Håkansson.
Remco van der Ban did manage an eighth with nine minutes remaining, leaving the home fans to simply be grateful that backup goalie Joni Toivonen could carry on after a nasty-looking boot to the hip from Leong. Bellamoli would end up making way for
Sandy Fu right before the end, unfortunately without his goal.
