Virtue Defended
Villains Drop Off
Some clarity would be provided on the title race today, as second-placed Villains F.C. were held one-all at home by the visiting Birds, with outside contenders Sarcastic Fringeheads and Haha also unable to seize victory. This happened to be the same outcome as transpired at The Cooking Pot earlier in the season, but to be frank, Grilled were the ones fortunate to come away with the point today, against the hosts' overall superiority.
Villains would still take some time to get going, however, even if they were not as conservative as they were playing away. There would be two at the top for them today, with Bogdan Siczek - sent off in the reverse fixture - left on the bench. In his place, there would be Slovenian forward Timotej Klarič and Norwegian newcomer Sigmund Johnsen, a blockbuster S$26 million signing some seven weeks in his tenure, and oft mentioned as a future national star.
Against this, Grilled went compact with Kalki and Kannan cleaving to the inside again, and
Chan Ze Han would find more freedom, with Majeed Saad no longer performing man-marking on him. It did, of course, mean that Villains had more strength bombing forward, but this might well have been their undoing on the Birds' very first foray.
Kalki Parvathaneni would have the ball shuffled into his path by the tricky Chan, but there wasn't enough space to maneuver it around Zvjezdan Ražić.
No early goal for Kalki then, unlike before, and Villains would take note of how easily they were breached. Adjustments would be made with their midfield now more cautious, and man-for-man, they would edge Grilled's representatives in that department. Actually crafting openings would be tougher, and it would take 25 minutes before their first real attempt, a Timotej Klarič drive that whizzed barely wide. They were certainly not skimping on effort, however, with Ciprian Huiet now suspended for their next match, after copping a yellow card for some rather cynical wrestling with
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud.
Nothing would come of that free-kick, and Villains retained the upper hand, though Grilled had the odd breakthrough of their own. The pick of those would arrive in the 37th minute, as
Moey Xin Seng's sometimes-suppressed scoring instincts bubbled forth, as he trailed Chan's spearheading dribble. Alert to his surroundings as always, his junior would willingly drop it off after hitting a wall, and Moey responded with a confident first-time lob, that eluded Ražić's immediate leap.
The opener sprung this fixture into turbo, and the remainder of the half saw chances aplenty. The hosts would have first bite of the cherry, but Giovanni Trombetta could not get to Vladimír Hanák's exquisite cross on their immediate counter, with Wong Jian Yew then pumping it over. The Birds then took over, but Moey would then have it blocked by the goalkeeper, as several playes piled up in mobbing the ball.
Bhavya Panigrahi would be held responsible for his charge on Villains captain Andrej Khramenkou, which had him stretchered off with a bad back. Foong Shi Soon replaced him on the wing, just in time for
Salah Kamel to nearly add another after rounding Ražić - only for Wong Jian Yew to leap in and cover.
The match restarted for the second half with Villains trying to get it directly to Johnsen and Klarič, but that appeared to play more into Grilled's hands, with their centrebacks generally getting the better of such deliveries. The home side could console themselves at least that Grilled were doing little better in attack, with
Kalki Parvathaneni being overworked on the left. Kalki gamely pressed it as much as his ageing legs would allow, and actually wriggled all the way through in the 66th minute, only to skim it off the crossbar.
Really, that was as much as could reasonably be expected, with his support being held up, but unfortunately it also resulted in Villains' equalizer. With the ball boy on their side, Ražić would be able to take the goal kick instantly, and for once Grilled's defenders were not in position. Vladimír Hanák would beat
Shekar Kannan in a race to the ball, and Johnsen would live up to his reputation, with a clinical touch at the near post.
Hilal Bakhtiar drew on his reserves at that, but there would not be much to be added on the offensive, with
Douglas Carapaica and
Teo Chuan Yong being like-for-like replacements for Lunde and Chu. Still, Grilled had a brief spark right afterwards with Kalki doing his thing after switching flanks, but Zvjezdan Ražić would be there with the reflex stop again, as
Vikram Mudaliar slid in a second too late. There would be no more chances of note for the remainder of the match, which did however see
Bilal Mohammad Harun return in the final minute, after a month-long layoff.
