Lost To Glory
His Turn Mah
An overconfident Birds team were upset by Glory Paradiso at home, mere days after besting them in cup competition. The visitors achieved the feat by again putting four past
Dimitris Germanakos while restricting Grilled to a single goal, which in turn could be attributed to their active pressing stance.
This was about all Paradiso boss Pavao Prgeša changed while shifting defender Timian Jacobsen more towards the centre, all the better to guard
Gústav Thoroddsen. Jacobsen and Bozkan's main mitigation remained the offside trap, which resulted in much jostling for position, and reading of the last pass. This didn't work out in the ninth minute as Thoroddsen stepped back and clipped the ball on for
Federico Parada to sprint onto, and the Bolivian winger drew Ang Fu out, before applying a very competent finish.
The Birds supporters had to be quite convinced of victory at that, with Grilled moving the ball about with ease, but Paradiso's gameplan was only beginning to take effect. Their full-on press orchestrated by Ong Yeng Eng would only get more tailored to the Birds' attack patterns, and with some quite excellent quality on the wings too, Grilled found themselves constrained before they knew it. Worse, Mah Lee Kim would again be Grilled's bane as he bombed forward in the 23rd, and
Dimitris Germanakos could hardly be faulted for not being able to get to Mah's incredible dipping effort from twenty yards.
Hwang Teck Fu looked disgusted at himself for not blocking that one, and an improved effort from Grilled's midfield had them asking more questions through to half-time, if not regaining the lead. This was always dangerous with Paradiso having a forward line that even past Birds titlewinning squads could have cause to envy, and they would indeed make their mark, if as providers today. Ajwad Mohd Raimi settled for a free-kick after struggling against
Mohd Marzuki Khairul just outside the penalty area, and Alex Duncan dropped it classily over the defensive wall, and into the far end of the net for 1-2.
Mah would then be back at it as Paradiso found that delicate balance between hard pressing and surgical incisiveness in going forward, as Gilbert Chung fell back to seek the onrushing midfielder out, in a move that exploited the Birds' relative lack of mutual understanding in defence. Mah was again flawless with his finish, and it might have been four in the 74th minute had
Aw Keng Chuan not chested it off the line from Ajwad, with Germanakos only able to get the barest of touches on the striker's powerful left-footed strike.
Grilled had not given up yet, and had
Chia Kwang Tse's excellent half-volley been some inches to the right and not clattered off Ang Fu's far post in the 81st minute, a draw might not have been implausible. Unfortunately, the woodwork would not be persuaded, and it was instead Eliézer Hermes to get a fourth for Paradiso with the Birds losing coherence in their haste, before they returned to the man-to-man press that had served them so well today.
