Tipped Over Twice
Gústav Arrest
tpyers might have reclaimed home advantage for the week, but it made absolutely no difference to the Birds, who duplicated their six-zero scoreline goal for goal.
Gústav Thoroddsen made it twelve in the league for the season already as he narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, while
Orest Tokarz matched him as they made a strangely-compatible combination up top.
While the home fans could not reasonably have held out much hope after the happenings of the previous week, they did have the return of Derek Dizon to watch out for, as Yeoh Jing De was picked as Kwok Ho Shi's support ahead of Tan Kong Sze. The weather was certainly better compared to then, not necessarily to tpyer's advantage, and Grilled got right down to business. It took twenty minutes before
Brian Reddy seriously tested Kok Yi Ping, who had to stretch to keep the winger's swerving strike out, and
Chad Thach barely failed to get the necessary contact on the rebound.
That was of no import to Thoroddsen, who kept his mind on what he was meant to do - which is, score. Grilled would begin to work their comparative strength on the right wing in earnest, what with
Chad Thach chosen as an inverted winger on the other flank, as Reddy continued cranking chances out; one of those was laid at Thoroddsen's feet some fifteen yards out in the 33rd minute, and the Icelander was simply afforded far too much time to draw a bead, before slamming it high into the top corner.
Kwok would eat a yellow card for his deliberate foul to disrupt Grilled Birds' flow in the following minute, which nearly paid dividends as tpyers enjoyed their best stretch of the day soon after. Some nice turns on the ball by Dizon led to a slicing through pass that took most of Grilled's defence out of the equation, and Kwok Boon Yeow slung his attempt right across the goalmouth with Kwok just a little late in arriving. Grilled's prompt response set Thoroddsen up just outside the box, but he couldn't find the target for once.
As before, tpyers' marking-based strategy had its limits as the match wore on, and Grilled again began to find more and more space to work with.
Chad Thach might have been under the weather these past few weeks, but there was not way that he was not going to take the shot on himself, once he managed to somehow wriggle his way inside under heavy scrutiny. Kok hadn't expected that, and was slow to cover his near post as the ball trickled in for 2-0.
The goalkeeper would redeem himself soon with a flashy flying punch to
Ha Qicai's diving header, a combination that should grace the monthly highlights. Unfortunately, that would be the exception to the rule, as
Orest Tokarz and then of course
Gústav Thoroddsen got their angles right. That made it four by the 66th minute, and
Phua Ming Xin would join in eight minutes later, as he briefly considered his options before chipping it home by himself.
Damian Hutter would come on for Aw with fifteen minutes to go, as has become common practice, with Tokarz adding a sixth after the game restarted - and from how Thoroddsen reacted, this might be the beginning of a beautiful new partnership!
