Singapore Sling
Liow Lashing
Grilled's undefeated record in their current Division Two stint was finally ended at Camp Nou Singapore today, with FC Barca Singapore repaying their defeat last Sunday with a rip-roaring comeback from two goals down. It was a coming of age for FC Barca's right winger of the future Liow Kok Aik, whose astute shot selection gave his club the boost they so badly needed when they were behind.
Despite last week's spanking, FC Barca head coach Suradhish Acharya kept faith with his picked men, with nary a change from the philosophy he had expounded all this while. Instead, it was
Djan Bacelar who strove to adapt. For all his praise of
Zhao Jing Wei, the veteran would be relocated from attack to defence, restoring
Rinor Isufi to the forefront.
Low Aik Jia too made way for
Lee Lee Hao as a tucked-in wide midfielder, a posting which would end in tears for Lee.
The start was about as good as the Birds could have hoped for, though. With the memory of last weekend still fresh, the FC Barca players didn't burst out of the gates as they were wont to, and Grilled were able to assert themselves even after some shaky short passing. The hosts did sound the first horn, with Hakim Niamuddin slipping longtime partner Vikas Alluri in after ten minutes. Alas, Alluri clipped it marginally wide.
Wong Tian Han wasted no time in booting the goal-kick downfield, and the wind-assisted monster of a kick caught the FC Barca defence unprepared.
Rinor Isufi opportunistically helped it on with a glancing header, and
Lee Lee Hao seized upon Osvaldo Argappio's misjudgment of its path to creep in ahead, dragging it past incoming New Zealander goalie Edmund Crean.
This turnaround shook FC Barca more than they cared to admit, and it was Grilled who looked like the home side for awhile. With renewed enthusiasm for the game,
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim turned Alluri before powering a bullet that Crean did exceptionally to parry, but
Tian Yonghang had seen it all before, and casually put the follow-up away.
The home fans were beginning to get restless, but they would be reinvigorated as
Wong Tian Han committed a rare goalkeeping error. Mikhail Smirnov's attempted cross, deflected high by
Zhao Jing Wei, appeared a cinch for Wong to claim, but he inexplicably elected to stay on his line. His defenders were too afflicted by his confusion, which left the way open for Vikas Alluri to score from an uncontested header.
Wong's indecision would fare badly when contrasted against Edmund Crean's perceptive save from a well-disguised
Tian Yonghang effort at the other end, and there would be more criticism forthcoming when he failed to stop Liow Kok Aik's fairly direct strike barely four minutes later.
Djan Bacelar made as if to exchange some words with his underperforming custodian, then thought better of it.
The third at least would not have much to do with Wong, coming as it did from an unstoppable Liow special right to the top corner, after a
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim booking had opened the way for a quick and cleverly improvised free-kick ground combination. The FC Barca support had a great time of it as that went in, as Bacelar tried to figure out what went wrong.
Being a goal behind was however not insurmountable, and Grilled did rediscover some fight to begin the second half with. Unfortunately,
Rinor Isufi was wastefully overconfident in front of goal, and their slight advantage would come to a screeching halt after an ugly collision between
Lee Lee Hao and Argappio. In his eagerness to reach the ball, Lee stuck a leg out as the Italian made a sharp turn, and had his knee caught painfully between the defender's legs.
The injury was clearly serious going by how Argappio immediately put the ball out upon realising what had happened, but if the Birds fans were hoping that Lee's replacement
Low Aik Jia would be a salvation, they would be mistaken. Low found in Liow an unexpectedly stubborn adversary, who he was never quite able to rid himself of for the remainder of the match.
Not long afterwards, flying Finn Tero Kaukonen would put his mark on the game, as he timed his run for Liow's unusually flat cross to perfection.
Gene Filippone had seen the danger, but Kaukonen had seized the initiative, and Filippone's surreptitious tug as the ball approached was insufficient to throw Kaukonen off.
Wong Tian Han did get a hand on it, but that was not enough either.
Grilled did continue taking the game to the hosts, who were by now intent on riding out the victory.
Clément Meyer displayed admirable urgency in trying to take it off Vikas Alluri, but was a second too slow, and received the second yellow of the affair.
Wong Ping Shun than had the Birds' best response of the half, with a top-drawer free-kick utilizing far more technique than his normal barnstormers, but sadly he drew it inches too far around the defensive wall.
