Dunked Deep
Keystone Kop
Grilled's perfect start to the season continued with a fourth victory, this one a 3-0 away at Ballota Stadium versus Pearl Divers. The lineups were scarcely recognizable from their last match five season ago in the S-League, but initial indications were that Grilled were further along the rebuilding process.
Making it even harder to identify the Birds, they would trot out in their limited-edition third kit of red and white, the first time in their history that they have donned these colours. Additionally,
Christopher Mauget would start alongside
Iman Eshrafi and
Prokop Mottl in the forward line, a setup less than a fortnight into the assembly. Then again, the Divers were not particularly better off, and they would once more lean heavily on Austrian veteran Axel Mair to weave it all together.
The big win against Quipersss last week had instilled a certain degree of initiative in the Divers side, and they enjoyed some early progress, stretching the game the full width of their pitch. 38 year-old Mikio Sugawara pulled off an intriguing chip on for fullback Kazuki Katagiri in the eleventh minute, and Katagiri powered it meaningfully towards the near post, only to miss by inches.
Grilled began dislodging the Divers from their own half, and began a slow pushback of their own. In the 20th minute,
Prokop Mottl disregarded the numbers before him, and made to get past defenders on his own. The chaotic movement of his comrades helped him out a lot there, and he managed to get a rushed shot off, that nevertheless caught Abdelqouddous Bouabdallaoui off due to the bounce.
Adding insult to injury, Othman Mokhtar was then booked for trying to push
Moey Xin Seng out of the way in the build-up, as the young Czech began his run. Divers head coach Michael Dworschak definitely did not agree with that, and he exchanged a few choice words with the nearest linesman, before being firmly told to return to his seat.
Otherwise, the first half was short of any real excitement, save for
Kalki Parvathaneni's try from outside the box, with
Ang Leong Kum apparently expecting him to give it back. It looked like skimming slightly wide, but Quek Leng made sure of it with a big sliding clearance anyway.
The game had swung decisively towards Grilled, despite the miss, and Divers would be starved for opportunites going forward. Mair, for all his undoubted experience, is constantly outhustled by the Birds' emerging midfielders, especially given his relatively lacklustre support cast, and they would need Bouabdallaoui to come up with a world-class save, against
Cyril Künzler's homing free-kick in the 53rd minute.
Künzler would assist
Moey Xin Seng with an awesome no-look flick in the 58th minute, and the Divers would suffer an even bigger blow about ten minutes after that, as Sugawara suffered a badly broken foot following a tumble into the advertising hoardings. The spectators were spared the grisly sight, but it was instantly obvious that it was extremely serious, from the surrounding players' expressions.
Referee Franziskus Denzler insisted that play carry on while Sugawara received treatment where he fell, since Terence Nguyen was waiting to come on anyway. One could not fault some of the players from remaining slightly distracted, though, and
Prokop Mottl narrowly missed a straightforward second goal, after Künzler had spotted him holding his dash into the six-yard box.
Moey would be the next to cook his chance, after
Gene Filippone's outlandish 84th minute through ball somehow got through to him. With almost the entirety of the goal open, he smashed it onto the crossbar; luckily, it got only as far as
Kalki Parvathaneni, who chested it down calmly, and hit a sweet half-volley between the onrushing defenders.
There was time enough for
Chu Xin Lee to possibly add a fourth, but he would also be let down by the lack of a true killer instinct, holding his peace for far too long. Then again, being 3-0 up was as good a time as to waste those shots as any, and Bacelar would give
Tian Yonghang a honorary run-out to eat away at injury time.
