Delayed Check
Three-pronged Fork
Queenstown MZKs didn't make it easy at The Cooking Pot once again, and Grilled Birds needed to wait until the last ten minutes to turn things around. The visitors' lineup would be entirely unchanged from the one that dragged the Birds to a 4-5 to close out last season, while
Tian Yonghang reshuffled his XI by slotting
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Chad Thach upfront, together with
Lim An Keng. All three would repay his trust in full, with their collective late blitz.
The start wasn't bad either, as Grilled took care to avoid a repeat of the instant Combo M'Madi downer from the previous edition. Teamboss
Tian Yonghang had made it very clear in the match programme that he wanted a win to get the team out of their mini-rut, and his players would respond with a chirpy approach that sought to pin the opponents back. They weren't holding back on utilizing the whole width today, and
Paulino Trindade made it past Soo Jie to feed
Chia Kwang Tse on in the ninth minute - with Chia just about powering his strike past Romano Santirocchi!
That was about as good as the fans expected, but the Birds would not slow down, and doubled their lead ten minutes later.
Brian Reddy tore up the other wing for this, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul carrying on the running, as Chia did for Trindade before. Whatever Grilled were planning was obviously working at this point, and Queenstown's Turkish captain Adem Boğ would get his teammates in a huddle to discuss countermeasures, as the Grilled team took their time cavorting before the gallery.
The visitors would take only four minutes to display their intent, with a purposeful advance by Czech playmaker Tomáš Aron sowing much doubt in Grilled's defensive setup. Both M'Madi and Satya Khade would peel off their markers at the exact same instant, but Aron defied expectations by racing at goal himself. He would be bumped in a hurry by
Hwang Teck Fu right as he crossed into the box, which had Swiss referee Xherdan von Itzenplitz give the penalty, after reviewing the footage.
Dimitris Germanakos guessed it would go to his left, but moved far too soon, and gave Combo M'Madi an easy shot.
The rest of the half would not see much notable action as Grilled imposed a possession-based style, which carried over into the next half as they went about getting a third goal with circumspection. Queenstown were too good a team to suppress indefinitely, however, and they would naturally put together a number of fine attacks of their own. One of these would come good in the 67th minute, as former national youth midfielder Amal Razin Abdul Rafi showed
Aw Keng Chuan a clean pair of heels, before assisting Adem Boğ for 2-2.
Tian was visibly shaken by that as he contemplated another giveaway, but held off on making any substitutions. This was not a bad decision as Grilled were actually controlling the game quite comprehensively, just that good chances remained hard to come by. Queenstown were playing it tight at the back despite their nominal 2-5-3 formation, and
Chad Thach had to battle his way past two men to get something on the ball 73 minutes in, only for Romano Santirocchi to block with his legs.
With the three points being up for grabs, the visitors would try to stake their claim late, but were instead caught by Grilled's hidden vitality. The Birds turned out to have one more gear in them, and Mohd Marzuki broke through their tormented right side in the 80th minute, leaving Hernán Fernández del Cerro twisting in the wind as the defender struggled to keep an eye on
Brian Reddy at the same time.
Paulino Trindade then knocked a corner to
Lim An Keng as Queenstown staggered, but the forward couldn't get a shot off under heavy watch.
No matter, he would end up relying on his trusty head three minutes later, as Grilled Birds again pressed into their opponents' disarray following
Chad Thach's superb drive inside their penalty area, which had the scoreboard at 5-2 seemingly from nowhere. Queenstown tried to bite back, but Geremanakos warded Combo M'Madi's stinger off two minutes later, and a thrilled Tian would throw out a triple substitution in the last minute to common acclaim.
