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FIXTURE HISTORY |
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Season 48 | W | 1 - 6 | Tournament (Playoffs) | Season 48 | D | 2 - 2 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Ruled Even
Ang Agony
Premier East Coast club Arcturules reinforced their reputation as one of the region's strongest sides after Arrogancae, as they held Grilled Birds to a tight one-all draw at The Cooking Pot. The visitors set out to make it a contest of few open chances, and largely succeeded under the capable marshalling of national defender Teo Hui An.
This would be Grilled's first official encounter with Arcturules despite having indirectly interacted with them multiple times over the years, most frequently in the transfer market. Former Birds midfielder lu Zunwen for example crossed over eight seasons ago, after impressing in his two tournament outings against Arcturules, though he then left for Phantasm Hotspurs after two seasons.
There remained two constants from that time -
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Tian Yonghang. The former quickly found it tough going against Teo, who was five years younger and sprightlier and milked it for all he could. Actually, it was the same for the latter against Teo's national team buddy Tay Jun Nie, but Tian would have his powers of adaptation to fall back on in the 14th minute.
The papers had listed this as one of the key battles of the fixture, and Tay indeed had Tian in his pocket in the early going. However, Tay's speed arguably worked against himself when Tian sold him a delightfully simple stepover, which he then elegantly transformed into a classy finish low around ex-Shining Lights trainee Hisyam Soleh Zain.
The breakthrough was an exception in a masterclass of pressing orchestrated by the visitors, though. Grilled were certainly not prepared for how suffocating Arcturules' defence from the front would be, as
Ang Leong Kum learnt very painfully. With twenty minutes gone, Ang attempted to turn on the ball, only to be blindsided by Yves-Marie Prat's extremely robust yet wholly within-the-rules bodycheck.
In his defence, Prat did look as horrified as the others when Ang fell awkwardly on his head, and the match was instantly stopped as medics from both teams came running in. Thankfully, Ang recovered enough to weakly give a thumbs-up after a few minutes of being administered oxygen.
Lee Lee Hao entered in his place, but was unable to arrest Arcturules' clamping down.
Grilled were at least in the lead, and for all their hustle, Arcturules were not exactly creating much of their own. Italan Number Ten Cristiano Fuso showed off some nifty first touches, but being isolated most of the time and not exactly a specialist at shielding the ball, found it hard to get his teammates in play.
Arcturules would continue biding their time after the restart, and their first true opportunity came after
Gene Filippone's strike clattered off the upright in the 51st minute. Philippe Sourd was fastest to break with
Wong Ping Shun tied up, and the free-kick awarded after
Ling Fuquan's forced tackle was centered to Luigi Porto without missing a beat. The woodwork again came to the rescue, however, and
Wong Tian Han gratefully collapsed upon the ball.
Sensing the danger, the Birds began to venture more deeply in search of a second. They were good value for it about this time, with
Low Aik Jia throwing Arcturules' disciplined backline into disarray for once. His hurried effort was deflected across the box by Karam Ezz, and
Ling Fuquan seemed to have bagged it with his instinctive half-volley - only for Hisyam Soleh Zain's hair-trigger reflexes to take over and make the save.
Swedish winger Harald Widahl would choose this moment to demonstrate his versatility. Having mostly functioned as a second fullback together with Tay thus far, he capitalized on a brilliant turn to put Tay through on the right in the 57th minute. From then on, it was from one Lion to another, as Tay's inswinger was bundled home by captain Teo Hui An.
The equaliser perked the visiting fans up greatly, but Arcturules themselves appeared once again subdued after that. They could be said to be fortunate not to have squandered this, as a rare split-second's indecision by Tay allowed
Rinor Isufi a one-on-one with Hisyam Soleh Zain. The goalie held his ground and forced Isufi back, luckily for Arcturules, and Isufi's finishing lob didn't come down properly, to his evident disgust.
Grilled still looked the more likely to steal a winner before the end, but against an Arcturules XI concentrating on preserving their point, it was going to take more than possession to break them down. Luigi Porto's taking a yellow for the team represented their resolution in that respect, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim's injury-time Hail Mary shot from near the half-way line about summed up the Birds' options.