Sleekly Done
Ang Opens Up
With the finishing line in sight, the Birds drew upon their accumulated reserves of footballing know-how, to come away with a priceless three points from Free Seating. It was a match of very fine margins as Claseek amply illustrated how they had been able to avoid defeat in the last four rounds of the league, but an early penalty call left them doomed to fighting vainly from behind.
Claseek had drawn three of those four, though, which meant that despite remaining unbowed for a month, they also began the day firmly in the relegation zone. Doğan Pürçek's only acquisition for the past half a year had been Swiss forward Ian Kleine, who has however proven to be worth every penny of his S$5.3 million asking fee, bagging three goals in his two league starts thus far.
As with Kleine, Grilled had their new hotshot darling, and it would be
Gennady Dvorak who would draw first blood. Claseek did not lack for competitiveness, but they perhaps applied it in a less than effective manner. Mara Roekanda had not even touched the ball, when he picked up a one-game suspension in the second minute, for an overdone sliding tackle on
Clark Won.
Won, by the way, was standing in for regular right winger
Wong Ping Shun, who had been dropped out of the blue by
Djan Bacelar. Had Wong been playing, he would probably have been the one tasked to step up, when a blocked jabbed pass from
Lee Lee Hao shot up into the desperately unlucky Kosuke Mizushima's forearm. It looked an unintentional handball if ever there was one, but it would also probably have gone to
Rinor Isufi had Mizushima not been in the way. Gianni Masin blew for the penalty after a long wait, and
Gennady Dvorak lifted it home coolly.
The match settled somewhat after that frenzied start, but it remained a comparatively bad-tempered affair; chances were few and far between most of the first half as the teams circled warily in the middle of the park, and
Low Aik Jia of Grilled and Jorge Fernando Ram of Claseek were eventually booked for less than praiseworthy reactions after losing the ball.
It would finally open up again as the half grinded to an end, and the Birds had what looked a sure conversion denied by Eñaut Iturrioz in the 38th minute, as the Claseek goalie flew across goal to stifle
Clément Meyer's point-blank header from a rebound. Iturrioz had barely managed to recover his breath, however, when
Gene Filippone got eyes bulging with a completely unanticipated overhead kick effort, that crept in for 2-0.
The home fans did not remain impressed for long, and they were beginning to get rowdy, when Claseek finally struck back. Hong Kong winger Tung Guicheng embarked upon a rampage on the right, and was unchallenged after Low missed his tackle. The finish was drifting past the far post, however, when Kleine slid in apparently out of nowhere, and tucked in the reducer.
Half-time came several minutes later, and the break didn't go particularly well for the hosts. They clearly renewed their commitment to scrapping for every ball, but in their eagerness allowed
Ang Leong Kum to waltz his way through a gauntlet of overly-obvious challenges. Iturrioz decided to hold his ground, but Ang was not affected, and stroked it simply to his outside.
Kosuke, who could have prevented that from going in had he not tripped and fell running over to cover the other post, would be put out of his misery in the 51st minute. On a rare foray up top, the Japanese-Singaporean defender, formerly of the Young Tigers' youth side, took
Gene Filippone's forehead to the back of his skull. He came out by far the worse from it, and would be replaced by backup utility man Lester Toh, while Filippone collected the game's fourth and last yellow card.
Toh arguably had much better fortune than his predecessor, as Grilled did not manage to capitalize on their string of fine chances that came after.
Rinor Isufi was the main culprit, as he came up with two weak shots in situations where he had to be favoured to score. Eñaut Iturrioz's contribution should not be diminished either, though, and the keeper was tremendous in denying Ang a second goal in a one-on-one.
This was the signal for Bacelar to pack some experience into the team to see out the game, and the venerable pair of
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Zhao Jing Wei would enter, for Meyer and Dvorak respectively. Slightly distressingly, they behaved every bit as their advancing years suggested, although Mohd Safri at least had the excuse of returning from a serious injury.
The Birds left enough of an opening for Roekanda to conceivably force a contested finale, but the fleet-footed leftback would find the ball running away from him on Claseek's 78th minute breakout, and
Wong Tian Han didn't have much trouble getting in position for the laboured strike.
