Starstruck
We're through!
Chen Chiew-Yen captured the league scoring title for himself
while winning Grilled promotion to Division Two with four goals
in a fairytale come from behind story.
The ultimate reward dangled over Grilled like a juicy carrot, but
star^strikers were at home with the majority of the 30000-strong
crowd behind them. Their adventurous 3-4-3 showed its effect
early, as Zheng Mun had only to get past
Lan Tuan-Mu as the rest
of the defence was occupied. That he did, and bent a shot with
his left foot with Bao-Tam caught in two minds.
Joe Stern tried his acceleration on Mexican rightback Carlos
Miragaya, only to find the defender his equal. He resorted to
jumping in from behind, which had the referee looking for a red
but flashing a yellow.
star^strikers were unrelenting, and the Grilled defence buckled
again as it collapsed to the sides to cover the strikers going
wide. That left the centre open for winger Mo Guan-Hee to dribble
in unattended. Bao-Tam tried to close the angle, but Guan-Hee
went to his left and tapped the ball in.
To tell the truth, Grilled could have rolled over given that
their lead was already unassailable, but that was not the spirit
that won them the title; Chen gave notice as to just what the
Birds were made of, as he tore through the opposition defence
immediately after, and halved the deficit.
The home side once again pulled ahead as Zheng Mun ripped the
ball past Bao-Tam from all of thirty metres, which again got a
near-instant response through
Zhan Ju-Hau, who surprised many
with his technical ability, capped with a magnificent chip over
Wing-ho.
star^strikers had the last word for the half, as Zheng Mun
obtained his hat-trick with an unstoppable jolt of pace that took
him past Tuan-Mu, two minutes from time. As he celebrated with
three fingers up, it was difficult to see how Grilled could
recover from that psychological blow, especially with Zhan booked
in the build-up.
But reply they did, and Chen didn't even take too long about it, with the hosts' defenders reduced to distributing the blame after none of them picked his diagonal run up in the 48th minute. Six minutes on, it was Chen's turn to collect his second hat-trick of the season, coming after
Ma Dai-Lin's fierce effort pinged off the crossbar.
The home team were by now reeling, and Chen put them to the sword with a calm finish just two minutes later, with all star^strikers being able to muster in response being a petulant foul by Shi-Hien.
