Midfield Decimation
Modi Loses Cool
Singapore Big Dogs would finish without three of their starting midfielders, in this top-of-the-table league clash at The Cooking Pot. The Birds's 3-0 victory was only to be expected, following from this, and
Chan Ze Han again stood out in a day of excellent performances all round.
The 2-6 away defeat at the end of last season was still stuck in many of the Grilled players' heads, from their pregame comments, and their head coach Teng Jian Wai would stick to largely the same 3-5-2 strategy from then. A number of minor tweaks were made too, with 20 year-old youth team up-and-comer Edward Lock bearing the responsibility of being their main striker, with Hudson Matsumoto joining Deng Yew Leong in a more supporting role. Vinod Modi would also be moved up to right wing, as Tomas Svensson and Jani Lindqvist provided the push from wingback.
The Big Dogs were as vulnerable as they had been for months, after their ten match undefeated streak - including nine wins - had been unceremoniously destroyed by Soccershen FC in the Singapore Cup last week. While the Big Dogs had played a side composed of mostly reserves, it was nonetheless not the best warm-up.
Islom Davlatov would be the Birds' only unavailable starter, with the medical staff unwilling to take chances on his concussion.
The first twenty minutes aptly reflected the significance of the match, with Grilled unwilling to commit overmuch, causing several good-looking attacks concluding with either a lob up to an isolated forward, or a wholesale recycling back to
Massoud Dob. Singapore Big dogs were mostly content to let these probes unfold by themselves, as they kept faith in their defensive coverage from midfield.
That strength would being to unravel, unfortunately for the visitors, as things began to pick up seriously. A sequence of dynamic interplay saw
Bhavya Panigrahi unleashed upon the Big Dogs' central defence, who escaped only after Sorin Ciugudean's partial block saw the shot spin marginally over the crossbar. The match would then be stopped for former national U-20 playmaker Mahesh Murthy, who had his right wrist twisted in the build-up. He would not be passed fit to continue, and veteran Tay Ting Lee would replace him beside Modi.
The match would then swing towards Grilled, as they got their breakthrough via
Chan Ze Han. The 25 year-old superstar is a man of many qualities, but the most exceptional of them is perhaps his absolute composure when faced with opportunity. There was no hint of any hurry as he ran onto
Bilal Mohammad Harun's pass down the right side of the penalty area, and the volley across Wicaksana Mabenda into his opposite top corner was impeccable.
There could be no shame in conceding such a goal, but the bigger problem for Singapore Big Dogs was that they simply weren't creating much if anything. Edward Lock was being shadowed very closely by
Gilbert Webb, not that his teammates were getting the ball to him in the first place. Worse was to come for them, as Hudson Matsumoto suddenly reared up clutching his lower back in the 31st minute. Teng hardly believed his bad luck, and after some hushed discussions with the team medic on the sidelines, he would have to use his second substitution in sending Joey Ling on.
It should be said though that Tay and Ling were hardly over the hill yet, and Singapore Big Dogs' midfield level would remain virtually unchanged, a tribute to the depth of their bench. Trouble was, Grilled remained a notch above, and the first half would end with the hosts having claimed nearly three-fifths of the possession.
This advantage would be pressed in the next half, with
Hovaness Noubaryan heard vocally reminding his players that a one-goal lead was not enough, as they came back out onto the pitch. The Grilled players took his advice to heart as they upped the urgency, and there would be a golden opportunity in the 52nd minute, as it all opened up for
Chu Xin Lee. Unfortunately, Chu couldn't keep his effort down.
The Big Dogs were fighting fires all over the field now, and Modi would be fortunate to stay on, after taking
Kalki Parvathaneni out when the latter was in full flight past him. A few minutes later, Jani Lindqvist would be cooked by
Cyril Künzler's untelegraphed sprint past him on the outside, right as
Moey Xin Seng released the through pass. Mabenda got a touch on the strike, to his credit, but far from enough from preventing a second goal.
Disaster compounded for the visitors, as Modi leapt in with a dangerous challenge on
Vikram Mudaliar on the hour, and there was no way he was staying on after that second major foul. Referee Dorian Bătrînac did allow a flustered-looking Teng some time to figure out his countermeasures, and
Hovaness Noubaryan would use the unscheduled water-break to put
Yuta Nakakita on for
Bhavya Panigrahi in defence.
There was little question of a Big Dogs comeback after going down to ten men, and it remained only to see how many more goals Grilled could fit into the remaining time. Chu and Kalki would be denied spectacularly by Mabenda's acrobatics, but
Vikram Mudaliar would snap up the rebound from Kalki's 82nd minute stinger, to score for the third league fixture in a row.
Prokop Mottl would then rack up another appearance as Noubaryan ran the clock down, together with newcomer and Czechmate
Radovan Jaška, who made a very brief Grilled debut.
