Barca Held
Øverture In The Works
Grilled ended Season Sixty-two on a comparatively uplifting note, as they finished level with runaway league winners FC Barca Singapore, in a thrilling four-all goalfest. The near 72000 who turned up made for the biggest attendance at The Cooking Pot since last season's hosting of Batok Earthquakes, and they couldn't have had much to complain about what went on offer.
With the game likely having fewer conseqences than might have been imagined on both ends, there was an air of experimentation - and entertainment - about the stadium. In a fan-pleasing move,
Djan Bacelar would finally start
Low Aik Jia on his favoured left flank, while the visitors stuck to the free-flowing 3-5-2 that had seen them dominate this season.
If would be difficult to separate FC Barca Singapore's accomplishments with those of their main striker Jørgen Ove, who has spectacularly come into himself at 34 years of age; this might have been a strange thing to write about the league top scorer for two of the last three seasons - a streak briefly interrupted only by Dietmar Dunkel's heroics - but if there was ever an example of getting better with age, the Dane would be it.
Having come into the match on an incredible seven-game league scoring run, the bookies had cut the odds on him making it eight to pennies on the dollar, and Ove called them on it just fifteen minutes in. Hong Kim Feng looked up and saw some good movement going on from his forwards, pumped it in as Ove peeled clear of
Yuki Irie, and that was that.
Grilled were evidently a class below FC Barca in technical terms, but they were at least eager to compensate for it with outsized grit. It was not exactly pretty to watch, but
Valentin Batâr for one was only too happy for the protection afforded. There was a price to pay for it, though, and after
Ang Leong Kum had caused a stoppage due to a painful pulled tendon,
Yuta Nakakita fell victim to a hideously dislocated knee in the 35th minute.
That didn't bring too much sympathy from the visitors, who instantly countered Grilled on the restart, but Batâr wowed for once with a magic save off Mok Tze Seng. As luck would have it, this weakened FC Barca's structure for once, and
Low Aik Jia would make the most of some uncharacteristic hesitation from Benedetto Diletti, to supply
Gennady Dvorak with an open look.
Natural goalscorer that he was, Dvorak hit a curling volley past Edmund Crean on the fly, upon which Lin Hui Ah badgered the referee pleading offside. Keigo García was not amused and booked the FC Barca winger soon after, which was followed by substitute
Mohammad Ramli Saliman sneaking behind the lines, and opening his Grilled account with aplomb.
There could have been few more memorable ways to do it, and as the match commentators hastened to add, it also happened to be the club's 3600th competitive goal. It was evidently not enjoyed by everyone present, however, as the cameras amusingly cut to a group of punters making a big show of tearing up their betting slips.
FC Barca head coach Suradhish Acharya definitely wasn't happy about his team's loss of concentration as the first half came to an end, and he didn't even bother waiting for the half-time whistle to unload into his players. They came back out with a noticeably different look in their eyes, and a roaring start saw former Panamanian international Jeremías Ávila nod home Hakim Niamuddin's composed send-up.
Not only that, they were settling into their winning pattern, slowly turning their possessions into dangerous chances, and Acharya sought to turn it on with Mikhail Smirnov's entrance in the 70th minute. Ove would nearly reap immediate rewards, as he dribbled nimbly through the entire Grilled defence, only for Batâr to meet him with an ultra-risky sliding tackle, that fortunately came off correctly.
History would repeat itself as the Birds saw their opportunity, and an excellent long ball out to the wings saw Low with another solo duel against Diletti, who didn't look at all comfortable. It became a free-for-all mad race to get in the FC Barca box, and
Yuki Irie emerged tops in the final recounting.
This was not what Acharya had bargained for, and the out-of-form Kwan Kuanzhi was thrown on for Georg Weidl, in a bid to turn things around. It was hard to tell whether this actually helped Chua Kwang Wee cut loose on the right, but in any case, Lin Hui Ah got FC Barca's equaliser in the 82nd minute, flying in onto a smothered attempted clearance in front of goal.
There was barely time to breathe before
Rinor Isufi stamped his mark with a scorching direct run for 4-3, but the day belonged to another man. Yes, it was Jørgen Ove, who met a deep Diletti cross with the perfect volley, just outside
Valentin Batâr's reach, and just inside the far post.
Djan Bacelar could only throw his arms up at such skill, and even
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim could only smile as he waited to get on for Isufi. There would be no further myth-making for the Grilled legend, though, as the three minutes of injury time passed relatively uneventfully.
