Gored By Giant Bull
Quah's Brief Brightness
Grilled's Masters adventure ground to a halt against Denmark's Cup champions El Torros Gigante, against whom they had no counter with Martinsson forlorn in the grandstand. The Birds were decisively beaten at home by the better team on the day, but could still take pride in setting a new Masters benchmark for Singapore by reaching the third round.
Gigante had recorded close victories over Israel's Hapoel Nahariya and the Dominican Republic's Bebe Romo in their two prior Masters game, capably anchored by Danish ex-wonderkid Bengt Birkegaard, who cost S$8.8 million while still in his teens. The superb wingback had 84 caps for his nation at all levels, and furthermore takes set-pieces for the Gigante side.
Ex-Belgian national goalie Mick Hoogendoorn, who cost S$18 million from Turkish team ^^!!KRAMP!!^^, and German Jan Schaffraneck are the other standouts in an impressive lineup.
For Grilled, van Liere remained in place of Spirig, whose injury turned out worse than feared.
Ulf Hjortlind would get his first Masters start, but there was no replacing
Ola Martinsson, who has yet to fail to score in a Masters match.
Gigante lived up to their name as they fielded several players over 1.8m in height, including Schaffraneck, central striker Jeppe Slet-Pedersen and utility left-sided midfielder Balázs Demkó. Demkó underlined their potency in the air when he struck a swirling cross by Boe Frederiksen at the top corner with just seconds played. Sulaiman parried it with both fists to save Grilled that time.
Kadak then blundered with an unnecessary challenge on Steve Taylor deep in Gigante's half, earning himself a yellow card and severely limiting his options for the remainder of the game. Grilled relied heavily on the square pass to retain possession, until a moment of brillance moved the match into high gear.
With eighteen minutes gone, Quah received a harmless short pass from Paullin. Without any warning, he swept past Raposo with a great first step, and then outsprinted 28 year-old Anker Nors Andersen on a straight line to Hoogendoorn's goal. A lightning-like shot later, Quah was wheeling away to celebrate the first goal by a local for Grilled in the Masters.
Quah might have enjoyed a game like van Liere's in Grilled's second Cup final win, had he fully capitalised on a Gigante mistake a minute later. The shaken opponents were backpedalling from the kick-off, when Raposo underhit a pass to his goalie. Quah was onto it in a flash, and went for a premature prod with his leading boot. A lesser goalkeeper would have been misled, but Hoogendoorn was too experienced, and kept it out with his feet.
Grilled would not hold on to the lead, unfortunately, as the Gigante players regained their footing. Their red shirts with a wide white vertical stripe were soon all over the Grilled half, and in the 21st minute Frederiksen hit a rising cross that Dutch forward Arjan Kerro Deyo weaved in between Bona and Kek-Tjiang to head into the net.
The match turned out to be a real thriller as sublime skill was demonstrated by footballers on both teams, and it was a pity that the show had to be interrupted by a close penalty call. van Liere's covering tackle on Slet-Pedersen appeared good, but it did contact both the ball and Slet-Pedersen's ankle at the same time.
Match official Yves Colombani pointed to the spot to deafening booing from the incredulous home fans, and Sulaiman could not have done anything against Birkegaard's supersonic conversion into the lower left corner. The ball was a total blur even as it came off the inside of the post, and to have saved it was not a humanly possible feat.
Left with twenty minutes to force a goal, Grilled fell apart like they had against Team Singapore in a Cup semifinal some seasons ago. Fredgård was rash with his slide in on Elias Ångsten and was lucky only to be cautioned, while Sid overdribbled in the opponents' penalty area and never got a telling pass off.
The end came when Slet-Pedersen anticipated Bona's weak clearance on a fullblown Gigante attack, and the tall Dane coolly waltzed his way past both Bona and Sulaiman before putting the killer third goal into Grilled's net.
