No Coasting
Shi-Fu Shines
East Coast United's Lin Shi-Fu played a blinder as he made a tired-looking Grilled Birds side sweat to a slim victory. Bakunin had retained only the defenders from the loss to Chinablack on Sunday, and the replacements were worse as they stumbled against United on simple passes. East Coast captain Huang Ren-Qing did a fair bit of ball-winning, in which his mates joined in.
Daniel Tellskär was not amused, and took it upon himself to kickstart Grilled with a searing run right into the East Coast penalty area. He booted the ball forcefully, but Lin Shi-Fu was equal to it and pushed it away.
Li Ze kept leaving his assigned wing, and ended up in a fracas in the middle for which he was booked. East Coast's defender Chen Han-Wu went in on Hobson clumsily, giving the away side a free kick which
Miguel Reed executed hastily. It's strength was taken out of it by a defender's head which got in its way, and Shi-Fu stylishly brought it down one-handed. His long throw was won by Blissenbach however, and the German youngster clipped a midair pass to Hobson, which Hobson cushioned to the earth. The ball was hit with the bottom corner in mind, and but for Shi-Fu's quick thinking would have indeed gone in. Tellskär at this moment seemed to have taken a knock from Han-Wu in an off-the-ball incident, and made a scene of himself to the referee. That brought a yellow for playacting. The East Coast Dome field was not in the best of conditions, and in the 34th minute Haji Abdullah bin Ahmad put his left foot into a divot. That pained the combative midfielder some, but he carried on after an icepack was applied.
Grilled were none the better after fifteen minutes' rest, and East Coast United could have been mistaken for the Division Two team when they pulled off a cheeky move which was finally broken by Pakpao.
Peter Åhsten, one of the better performers of the day, sapped 31 year old defender Roshadi bin Marup's stamina with his pace, and gave Grilled the ascendacy with a shoulder fake that cleared the whole left side of the field for himself. Shi-Fu was slow just this once, and Åhsten released his shot before he had time to narrow the angle. Grilled then sought to take home the win by playing a cautious brand of soccer. This did not go down well with the spectators, and the neutral went over in droves to the home side. East Coast United were always one step behind when it mattered, and their winger Zou Yung-En had to resort to a rushed tackle to stem the threat from Åhsten, duly punished by the referee. Ren-Qing walloped the ball from his own half as stoppage time drew to a finish, but it didn't even make it past Grilled's endline.
