Orangutans Put Down
Isufi Index
Rinor Isufi delved into his vast library of moves in Grilled's friendly against Indonesian Division four team The Orangutans, in which they prevailed after a fairly even first hour. It was only the Birds' second visit to Singapore's southern neighbours, and in fact also their first win after AC Mainland had dispatched them 0-6 in a testimonial thirty-four seasons back.
Founded by the same administration of Norwegian club EverLyn, The Orangutans promoted in their first season, but have yet to make their breakthrough in IV.63. Nevertheless, they have certainly made an impression, with hometown boy made good Dani Khalidan hogging the headlines for closing in on the century mark, having just won the league Golden Boot.
Attention was indeed all on Khalidan and Isufi as they hurried to strut their stuff, with Isufi drawing first blood after barely 150 seconds.
Clark Won's abrupt turn sent him clear of Daniel Suhadinata, and with
Leong Wan Kang closer in and
Rinor Isufi further off, Won opted for the latter. It was perhaps not the best choice on hindsight, but Isufi repaid his teammate's faith in him with a delightful swivel and flick that left Rizky Maulana Andrean staggered.
The Orangutans were not intimidated, and they kept their composure while slowly working themselves into rhythm. Their style was maybe not the cleanest, but the Putra Tomagola-coached side moved with a grim purpose that was difficult to check. A rolling move down the right side in the ninth minute proved too much for Grilled's defence to handle, and Khalidan beat
Krystian Rykowski with a swipe of his lethal left foot.
Regrettably, Khalidan would not be much longer for the game. After twenty minutes of getting the 4000-strong crowd excited whenever the ball reached his feet, which was often, he suddenly pulled up and went to ground out of nowhere, provoking a huge reaction from the concerned fans. The medics were on the scene in seconds, and after exchanging a few words with the stricken star, bundled him off without explanation.
37 year-old reserve striker Herry Papara came on right away, as it was clear that Tomagola had no intention of risking his key man further. The new man wasn't half bad in possession, but his lack of mobility gave Grilled more breathing space than they deserved, and new recruit Kohai Okuya opened his account with a wallop from the corner of the area. He clearly enjoyed watching it go in.
Orangutans would equalise once more in short order, after Italian winger Rodolfo Passoni had drawn the Birds' formation to himself almost singlehandedly. This left Candra Azis with a much smoother path down the left flank following a snappy crossfield pass, and after a couple of misconnections on the near side, it fell to Finnish fullback Mikko Ahvenniemi to tuck it beyond the wrongfooted Rykowski.
The second half saw
Remco van der Ban enter for
Hilal Bakhtiar, but it was quickly apparent that for all of his tendency towards the spectacular, he wouldn't be the gamechanger. The next switch was
Pompeo Bellamoli coming on for
Zhao Jing Wei, whose natural conservativeness minimized his impact as a forward, and this did make Grilled's offense more expansive.
Leong Wan Kang soon found that his understanding with regular partner Bellamoli was much better than with Zhao, despite the latter being objectively a better footballer by almost any measure. He didn't take long to turn it to his advantage, working a decisive one-two with the Italian in the 71st minute that carved the enture Orangutans backline open. Only Iswan Li's fingertip save kept Leong from extending it to 4-2 in the 78th minute.
That honour would be reserved for
Rinor Isufi, who was thoroughly enjoying operating out of the hole. His youthful vibe led directly to the fourth, as he was eager enough to stick a foot out as Joko Mashuri played a free-kick, won after eating Bellamoli's accidental elbow. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, nothing would have come out of that, but the interception succeeded this time, and Isufi sped straight down the middle to chip Iswan.
Joan Cisquell relieved
Rashid bin Ahmad with eight minutes remaining after the Number Fourteen signalled to the bench about a slight complaint with his hamstring, and had not much to do other than get on Diego Pemecutan's back.
