Lead Lengthened
Ground And Pound
This might have taken longer to lock up than Grilled Birds might have wished, but a 4-1 win over Ramseille Volliard FC - and an extension of their advantage in the S-League to five points - was as much as they could ask for. Ramseille Volliard FC had fallen to Grilled in each of their three previous meetings in the top flight, their two wins in Division Two notwithstanding, and today could hardly be expected to be different given that the Rams had just the single draw against Crypto Moon thus far.
The uncommonly-lengthy tenure of Ramseille head coach Yeoh Wei Puay has come under attack, after a string of poor performances, and while his Sapphire Challenger Cup three-peat alongside his unchallenged status at the club has preserved him until now, it is unclear how much more their supporters will stand for. Their counterattacking strategy has suffered since Vasil Eliava's left foot fracture against Phantasm Hotspurs in the cup, and with Uruguay centreback Elías Moreno not quite match-fit either, this was always going to be tough for them.
The visitors' main saving grace was that the Birds had a few issues of their own, chiefly
Bilal Mohammad Harun's unavailability, but also poor form on several erstwhile regulars such as
Kalki Parvathaneni and
Bhavya Panigrahi. Neither made the starting lineup today, but Grilled if nothing had ample depth in most departments. Both pure wingers would be deployed today as
Teo Chuan Yong served in Bilal's role as the carrier, with
Douglas Carapaica apparently having instantly established himself as the first choice in defence, benching not only Panigrahi and
Gilbert Webb, but even
Sølve Lunde.
Grilled had scored twice within the first three minutes in the reverse fixture at HighVolliard Park, and while they were not nearly as prompt today, the overall direction remained mostly unchanged. Despite Ramseille stringing five across the back, they could still be stretched with judicious application of width, and
Wu Jinglong had former Slovenian international fullback Leonard Bačnar pulled all the way to the touchline at times. Even that didn't keep Wu from hugging the boundary in his advance downfield in the tenth minute, and the fine cross was thumped down into the turf and past Giancarlo Buffon, by a ranging
Vikram Mudaliar.
Ramseille could be threatening when left to their own devices still, as when Sergio Sonino was given freedom down their right flank, in the 18th minute. The referee might have had something to say about Douglas climbing all over Hugo Lamm, had it not merely cleared the way for Aleksander Szczypkowski to duck in with a stiff stooping header. The Rams were thus back level, but not for very long, as Grilled centre forward
Chan Ze Han teased a path through their defence with neat footwork, before sliding the ball to the far corner by the book.
Chu Xin Lee would complete the repeat from last month, as he followed Mudaliar and Chan in scoring against Ramseille again, in the 33rd minute; while heavy on the numbers, the opposing defenders seemed wary of committing to tackles in their own box, and they could not get away with that forever, against dribblers with the creativity of Chu. Mudaliar would soon afterwards attempt to pad his haul against the discouraged visitors, but his spectacular volley whizzed inches high.
It was going too too well for Grilled perhaps, and they would be served a measure of adversity soon enough, as the impressive
Kalle ter Berg twisted his right ankle in whirling past Pierre-Yves Robert. Ter Berg dutifully got the through pass off, but it was evident that he would not be able to carry on, from how his ankle collapsed on the replay.
Bernie Egan would eventually amble on for the Dutchman, only to spray his shot horribly wide, on a fantastic would-be assist by Chan.
Chan and Egan would actually make for a dynamic tandem at the beginning of the second half, with Moey and Mudaliar oft relegated to sideshows, not that the latter seemed to begrudge it. Buffon would have to be quick off his line to deny Chan in the 51st, and then there was some very literal end-to-end action, with Buffon blocking from Egan, Murathan Esinay sending it across with the goal at Lamm's mercy had he been able to get there, and then Chu drawing a top-class flying save off Buffon, all within scarcely more than sixty seconds.
With all this going on, the stadium commentators were pretty confident that they had not seen the end of the scoring, and they would be proven correct. Grilled's fourth goal arrived in the 74th minute, and attached to a new name on the scoreboard;
Wu Jinglong might be turning 38 years old soon, but the former Fringeheads star has more than made up for any decline in physical attributes, with a sharpened instinct honed over many hundreds of matches. No-one was thinking of him when
Moey Xin Seng plugged away on the left, from how much space he had when the ball got pulled back, and one has to suppose that he knew where he was going to put it, all along.
4-1 might not have been it either, as Esinay refused to give in, and the Turkish midfielder's turn of pace would see him break clear through the centre, a few minutes on. Grilled's defenders did just about enough to throw Carl-Georg Reeperbahn off, and another quick return had
Vikram Mudaliar shake the woodwork with his favoured right foot.
Gilbert Webb and
Salah Kamel would then enter for Douglas and Heng with ten minutes left, to little more action.
