Shield Bearers
Awesome Au-Yong
Grilled Birds became the second winners of the Singapore Community Shield, the season-opening contest between the holders of the S-League title and the Singapore Cup winners. A season after All Stars Team went down 0-4 to Winning Eleven at home, Grilled outplayed ChAmPzz by the same scoreline with which they won the Cup.
The match was held in the City area, at Chemistry's 101010-capacity stadium, The Acidic City. Though the spectators fit into a corner of the grandstand, it would still be a grand spectacle with the participants taking it seriously - virtually all the players were of first-team calibre.
van Liere carried his league form over, and profited when Malaysian fullback Mohd Firdaus was a step slow on the turn. That bought the Dutch winger enough space to send a neat cross into the middle, which
Au-Yong Siu-Yue looped into goal with the back of his head.
Young local winger Jiang Yah-Lin got ChAmPzz back on level terms within two short minutes, as he blew past Sid to scramble the ball down the sidelines. Deftly keeping the ball from going out, Jiang proceeded to push the ball across the face of goal for Swedish striker Kalle Hägerflod to bump in.
Play continued to be pretty even, but Au-Yong's touch proved to be gold as he blasted a way through several defenders before releasing the ball under Per Ödahl for his second goal. The Number Seventeen was clearly in his element, more so with his teammates sensing his confidence and allowing him to lead almost all attacks.
ChAmPzz exhibited solid defensive instincts, and might have taken a draw on another day. Passes were making it through by the slightest of margins, though, and crucial tackles fell just short, allowing Grilled a few more shots on target than usual.
Fabian Bona was clear through in the 57th minute after a failed interception, but hesitation on his part allowed a single-minded Ödahl to reach the ball before him.
Bona got mangled in a mid-air collision with Duvfeldt in the 77th minute, but shooed off the stretcher bearers after spending a long time dazed on the ground. The free-kick, in a good position, had Sid sizing it up, the Polish defender having obviously taken over Martinsson's duties in this respect.
While debate will rage over which of them is the better dead ball specialist, Sid did nothing to encourage his detractors with a perfectly-weighted strike which spun over the ChAmPzz wall and took a bounce right into the corner of the net. The curl on the shot was simply out of this world.
Siu-Yue had time to complete his first hat-trick in five seasons with three minutes to go, as he exchanged positions with van Liere and displayed great stamina to outrace the defence. Falkbo might have added a fifth in injury time as Kek-Tjiang floated an interesting ball into the penalty area, only for Ödahl to tip his powerful header over the bar.
