Queenstown 5 - 2 Grilled
51514 spectators arrived at
MZK Stadium, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.
N'zueba Sylla was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Abdul-Raheem Malki and
Abdelmouqtadir Baddou. The following players took the field for Queenstown:
Santirocchi -
Rotenberg,
Fernández del Cerro -
Jie,
Jing Wee,
Aron,
Razin Abdul Rafi,
Ho Jie -
M'Madi,
Boğ,
Khade.
Grilled's starters:
Germanakos -
Keng Chuan,
其材 (Qicai) -
Reddy,
Teck Fu,
Kwang Tse,
Khairul,
Parada -
Thach,
Chitre,
An Keng.
Both teams came out with a similar approach to the match, having chosen to start with a 2-5-3 formation. Queenstown used their divine (20) ability to concentrate their attacks in the middle of the pitch, rather than on the wings. Grilled tried to focus their attacks down the middle, taking advantage of their divine (+9) (29) level with that tactic. Queenstown fans held their breath as
Adem Boğ scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 1 - 0! Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. Grilled had a chance to level the scores as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul suddenly found himself free in the middle of the box with only the keeper to beat, but he misjudged the finish, and only managed to hit the bar. Queenstown put themselves up 2 - 0 when
Adem Boğ broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. The referee showed Queenstown's
Soo Jie the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Queenstown players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. Cheers filled the stadium as
Adem Boğ broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to Queenstown. At that,
Adem Boğ was noted down for a hat trick! 3 - 0 was the score after the first half. Grilled had most of the ball, with 52 percent of possession.
The home team's fans were upset when, after 55 minutes, the visiting
Federico Parada broke through the central defence and kicked the ball past the keeper. 3 - 1 was the score. Grilled had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. 62 minutes in,
Chad Thach made an incredible run up the middle and nearly reduced the home side's lead, but
Romano Santirocchi refused to let the ball slip by him. The Queenstown free kick 66 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of
Adem Boğ, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 4 - 1! Grilled's
Dimitris Germanakos took a knock to the head after 67 minutes, due to a badly executed header. He took a few uneasy steps, but got dizzy and then taken off the field. This gave
Manuel Vadalà a chance to take to the field instead. The away team improved the scoreline to 4 - 2, as
Lim An Keng struck home, set up well by a play on the left 73 minutes into the match. Grilled had a fair chance to reply after 76 minutes due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end
Lim An Keng was slow to keep up with the play and was unable to make it into the penalty box to apply a finish. Queenstown's
Soo Jie was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box -
Amal Razin Abdul Rafi managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 5 - 2 after 84 minutes.
Brian 'Was Born' Reddy would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise.
Paulino Trindade entered the game for Grilled as the match clock showed 88 minutes. As the 88 minute mark approached, the Grilled coach decided it was time for a substitution.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul reluctantly made way for
Teo Chuan Yong on the pitch. It was announced by the referee that he estimated stoppage time to be around 3 minutes. This meant there could still be an extra attack or two left in the match! The match ends 5 - 2. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Grilled, with 52 percent of the ball.
Queenstown's top performer was clearly
Adem Boğ.
Hernán Fernández del Cerro was a disappointment, however.
Gandhik Chitre performed admirably for Grilled.
Manuel Vadalà turned in a dismal performance, however.