Meek Mauling
Tuan Rosli Takes Control
It was a fixture fraught with much history, as Grilled's seventeen competitive meetings against Arrogancae is their most among extant Singaporean clubs. What was less encountered in those many clashes was the docility with which the Birds approached this Singapore Masters opener, and it was only with a couple of late strikes that they regained some modicum of respectability.
On the face of it, Grilled were, if slightly, favoured going into the contest. Arrogancae were sluggish in their big loss to Pearl Divers, while Grilled were coming off several dynamic displays. However, it turned out that they had nothing left in the tank at all, going by how insipid they were through the vast majority of the match.
Having not made too much of an impact in their previous Singapore Masters runs,
Djan Bacelar had declared that Grilled would be seeking to use the competition as a serious judge of their preparedness. If so, he would be greatly disappointed by the lack of endeavour on show, as Arrogancae's men were by far the hungrier of the duo.
The Birds were not strictly outmatched, but the commentators soon recognized that Arrogancae were comfortable leaving them with possession, mostly as they had trouble moving it forward with any consistency. Grilled were soon reduced to giving it to
Low Aik Jia, but today, even the renowned ball-hog did not want to be saddled with it.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim did make a shot for himself in the 20th minute, but it was pushed onto the crossbar by Arrogancae's Number One, Bence Dibáczy. A few minutes later, his fellow national forward Tuan Rosli bin Ahmad gave
Wong Tian Han no such opportunity, as he laid his effort well out of reach, completing Kasimir Toplak's rampage down the left.
The usually combative
Wong Ping Shun looked almost beaten, and he didn't chase Toplak on his next break two minutes later either.
Gene Filippone lost out to Aleksandar Kozić in the air, and had the referee spotted
Lee Lee Hao's elbow into Carlo Arizzini's back inside the penalty area from another angle a bit later, it could have gotten extremely ugly for Grilled.
Kozić turned out to be able to give as good as he gets, and not six minutes into the second half, he helped put Arrogancae three-up with his sharply-swerving corner.
Zhao Jing Wei came closest to cutting it out with his wealth of experience, but remained an inch too short, and big Jens Smolka hammered it in solidly down off the turf.
To add to Grilled's woes,
Wong Ping Shun then missed his second penalty in a row, having failed to convert against Kim Tae Hee FC just a week ago. Although Dibáczy was well beaten this time, Wong wound up not maintaining sufficient control, and hit it slightly off the top left corner.
As if it could not get any worse, Arrogancae further scored from the ensuing goal-kick, with Iranian defender Zavareh Choubineh slotting it in from a tight angle. The Grilled fans were by this point resigned to their fate, and their stand appeared rather sparsely occupied by the time Choubineh celebrated his goal.
Izak Van Der Leen nearly added to the slaughter after the Birds somehow lost the ball following their free-kick awarded for Jens Smolka's roughhouse play, and for all of
Tian Yonghang's directions from the front, it looked like a completely lost cause.
The Grilled captain was not about to go gently, though, and despite the four-goal margin being realistically insurmountable, he was out to get a consolation at least. His chance came in the 82nd minute, after a
Chow Ying Lee raid won the Birds an indirect free-kick some way out.
After a short conversation with Zhao, Tian put his plan into action. As Zhao wound up, Low and Chow made a dash for it down the left, drawing the Arrogancae defence instinctively to that side. Zhao's true target would however be Tian, who rather more stealthily peeled off to the right.
The only opponent who spotted that, perhaps due to his own nature, was Tuan Rosli, but he would only be able to get a leg in after Tian had loosed his strike. In the end, Tuan Rosli would not only be unable to prevent the goal, but further picked up a yellow for his troubles.
Of course, it was still a big victory for his side on the whole, even if
Woon Shun An pulled another back before the end. There was no question of a full comeback as Arrogancae looked the more likely to add to their lead in the last five minutes, and Bacelar decided to pull
Low Aik Jia off for
Abdul bin Jantan in what was effectively an admission of defeat.