Belait Basted
Colby Triple
Grilled advanced in the Asian Champions League with a resounding eight-nil win over Brunei Third Division side FC Sporting Belait, an affiliate of Austrian club Leibnitz United FC. As with the Birds, Belait used the game as an opportunity to give their midfield trainees some game time, but as it happened, Grilled's were somewhat ahead in their development.
There could be few complaints about the venue either, with the participants arranging their showdown at the legendary AKIBA Yodobashi Arena, home to the world-famous Akihabara Tigers. The unfamiliarity might have affected the youngsters present, though, with there being plenty of hardworking but ultimately unproductive running in the early going.
The first volley was fired by the Bruneians, coming from homegrown captain Azman Ilham bin Hj Azni, who shoved his way past
Clark Won in the 18th minute. He sure got his weight behind Felix Brunner's long cross, but
Valentin Batâr for once showed his class with an immediate diving save to deflect it spectacularly over and out.
That was a sign that the match was opening up, and Belait's eagerness to attack proved their downfall, several minutes later. Pablo Carul was caught on the wrong foot when confronted with a hurried backwards pass, and
Chu Xin Lee managed to tap it on for
Rinor Isufi to rush onto.
Gennady Dvorak then made it 2-0 on the very next move, with a textbook header off
Yuta Nakakita's delivery.
This could be seen as the tipping point in retrospect, and Belait never seemed able to recover after those blows. Yuta himself would get the third after a prolonged passing move in the 35th, followed shortly by fellow Japanese-Singaporean
Yuki Irie, who showed signs of coming back into form, with his nimble movements in the build-up.
It was mostly a formality after that, despite forward Latip bin Salleh dropping all the way back to help out in defence, though he did probably contribute to putting
Clark Won off his shot in the 53rd. Belait actually mostly held their own after some reorganization going into the second half, at least up until
Leong Wan Kang had to limp off following a biting tackle from Karl Löw.
Colby Awyong came in for Leong, and re-energized Grilled all by himself. He certainly held nothing back in his all-out sprint for Won's ambiguous ball from the free-kick, and managed to beat Hj Sabli bin Erywan with a fearless torpedo header. He did it again two minutes later, after complicated off-the-ball scattering saw it open up for him, right down the middle.
Moey Xin Seng improvised cleverly, and Colby could do no wrong on the day.
Yuki Irie then made it 7-0 with a run up the right side, but the headlines would belong to Colby, who made it three out of three from dead ball situations, as he converted
Rinor Isufi's corner with unparalleled confidence. Belait's best hope for a consolation then came when Aarno Strömberg went for it from distance, but Batâr got his fingertips to it.
