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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 53 | W | 2 - 6 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Dumped By Deinos
Cracks Appear
Grilled's rebuilding project went into free-fall, as their new-look XI was humbled by the newly-promoted Club Dinosauria at home. Little went right for the Birds, who showed little evidence of gelling against the elated Deinos visitors, who notched their fourteenth consecutive competitive win on the trot.
Though few Grilled supporters had seriously expected them to flop here, at least according to the official pre-match online poll, more than one pundit had warned of the Deinos' surprisingly fluid tactics; and indeed, Aussie coach Mark Goldman shuffled his forward configuration, with Singapore internationals Ma Jing and Cheong Tse Jian swopping up, to start up top and on the wing respectively.
If their 4-5-1 was calculated to contain the Birds' creaking strikeforce, it certainly worked as advertised. Coupled with ready aid from a deep-lying midfield, Grilled were choked almost from the outset, with Adriaan van der Burg standing firm. Six minutes in, he would send a clearance low down the left channel, that Cheong would latch onto and take past
Yuki Irie with a deft lob behind the last defender, before launching it over
Wong Tian Han too with a running header.
This was a dagger to the heart of the already-suffering home fans, and there was frankly little in their following play that suggested a happy ending for the Birds. While all coming up through the same youth system, Grilled's central midfielders were clearly not on the same wavelength, and it took a savage last-ditch tackle on Ma Jing from
Gene Filippone to forestall a likely 16th minute breakthrough.
There would then be a brief spurt of activity from Grilled, with Deinos' main threat having to come off; unconcerned about the opponents' temporary man disadvantage,
Ang Leong Kum glided down his now-abandoned flank to slug one at the Deinos goalmouth, only for the retreating Nikolaos Faraklatos to meet it on the line.
Mohammad Ramli Saliman shortly after went up for a cross by Ang, coming down the same side, but couldn't seal the deal.
That period was about as good as it got for the Birds, after which substitute Aminiasi Hoare grew into his position, and started to force Grilled to stay conservative. And thus the game wound on, nary a true opening in sight, until some twenty minutes into the second half.
Wong Tian Han would parry brilliantly from Hoare's corner conversion, only for Brazilian midfielder Jocimar Schmidt to stick a quick boot into the rebound.
Hoare himself would get his due in a minute, as he polished off yet another electrifying counterstrike, to make it 3-0.
Gennady Dvorak would duly reduce the deficit, reading
Rinor Isufi's unsignalled free-kick correctly, but the empty seats in the stands that the Argentine ran towards in celebration, told the whole story.
Deinos wasted no time in snuffing out any optimism that had been briefly raised, as Hungarian winger Tamás Udvarias bore down on an uncharacteristically-stressed
Yuki Irie, and got a lucky bounce off Irie's rushed distribution.
Wong Tian Han compounded the error by coming out too hastily, making it easy for a calm Udvarias to dodge the oncoming goalie, before putting it into the empty net.
Yuta Nakakita showed admirable fighting spirit in insisting on playing on with a bandaged calf, after getting it badly gashed in an accident; sadly, this made no impression on Deinos, who closed shop all too comfortably.
Djan Bacelar made a final gamble for the final ten minutes, throwing the transfer-listed
Clément Meyer and
Wong Ping Shun on, but they made precious little impact either.
