Grilled 4 - 2 Andino
Dark skies made the crowd at the stadium today a little nervous, but the rain held off. Lineup:
Germanakos -
Himadas,
其材 (Qicai) -
Reddy,
Thach,
Keng Chuan,
Teck Fu,
Trindade -
Kwang Tse,
An Keng,
Khairul.
They fielded:
Mittelbuchen -
Rubilar,
Manquilef,
Machado -
Sifri,
Jara,
Brito,
Simonetti,
Vadillos -
Capo,
Antúnez.
Grilled Birds started the game in a 2-5-3 formation, whereas Andino F.C. lined up in a 3-5-2. Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle, using their divine (+8) (28) ability to great effect. With 8 minutes of the match played, a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but
Jose Manuel 'Kamikaze' Antúnez, after dashing down on goal from the left and finding himself with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide.
Jose Manuel 'Kamikaze' Antúnez shows no mercy as he runs straight at the Grilled playmaker, then stumbling through the ensuing mess with the ball and scoring for Andino. That's 0-1 from the power forward, 8 minutes in!
Juan 'Samurai' Sifri managed to make an excellent pass from the wing, but
Gastón 'El Padrino' Capo was not as skillful and couldn't finish it off. Andino's
Jose Manuel 'Kamikaze' Antúnez made it through the home team's defense on the right hand side 26 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded net when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. With a shot lofted in from just outside the penalty area 30 minutes in,
Chia Kwang Tse of Grilled evened the score to 1 - 1. Some great play up the middle by Grilled led to a chance for
Chad Thach to get the go-ahead goal with 36 minutes played, but the shot hit the crossbar. This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when
Artemio 'Huaso' Brito slipped through the left defense to come up alone against
Dimitris Germanakos, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning-fast reflexes. Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up coming through the center.
Lim An Keng is making an astonishing dash. The fans are chanting his name. You can hear it reverberate around the stadium. Now a manic sprint up the middle and into the box. Oh! He's thrown open the door! He's thrown open the door, shot the ball through, and slammed the door shut on Mr. Tumnus! Grilled has taken the lead 40 minutes into the match, 2 to 1. There'll be no Turkish Delight after the match for the keeper! A run up the right wing paid off for Andino as
Jose Manuel 'Kamikaze' Antúnez hit a wicked shot past the keeper to tie the game. 2 - 2 after 41 minutes. The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 2. Well, look at this! Cardi B is on the Enormotron in naught but giant sunglasses and a Beep Boop tank top. I've not seen anything like it before. It was obvious that Grilled had instructions to attack in the middle when they directed a break on the wing into the center of the park. After a fine move down the middle
Lim An Keng nearly put the home side one up with 56 minutes played. His final touch escaped him though and the keeper smothered the ball. Making his way up the middle after 59 minutes,
Chad Thach almost managed to sneak a goal past the visitors' keeper, but
Elias 'Condor' Mittelbuchen was ready and blocked it to keep the score level. With the clock showing 60 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board.
Dimitris Germanakos looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for
Cameron Law, though he would have liked to continue. After 71 minutes, Andino began to show their lack of experience and they threatened to wilt under the heavy pressure from their opposition.
Hwang Teck Fu's name was chanted throughout the stadium after his goal in minute 76 following a run up the middle gave Grilled the 3 - 2 lead. After 83 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by
Raúl Himadas might have resulted in another goal for Grilled. However,
Elias 'Condor' Mittelbuchen made a spectacular save. Against a lesser team, Andino could very well have succeeded with their smart indirect free kick combination after 84 minutes. A trio of passes took the ball all the way past the defenders, but by then the intended recipient was blocked off and the keeper could make a leisurely save. 89 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game.
Aw Keng Chuan gave
Damian Hutter a quick hug as he left the field. The fourth official announced that there would be 1 minutes of stoppage time, giving fans a slim hope that their team could get one more attack in before this was all over. Grilled's
Brian 'Was Born' Reddy has always shown the ability to do what no one expects him to do... this time he ran over an opposing defender, snatched the ball and passed to
Paulino Trindade who hit it hard into the wide open goal: 4 - 2! Grilled had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle instead. Grilled's
Chad Thach saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates 89 minutes in. The match ends 4 - 2. Let's go to Bluesky to see what the fans think of the game so far! says Most important Grilled player was
Lim An Keng. I can't remember
Cameron Law ever having a worse night than he just had. Andino's top performer was clearly
Gastón 'El Padrino' Capo. Speaking of stinking up the place,
Juan 'Samurai' Sifri sure smelled like the bottom of Batman's shoe after a night of crimefighting in Gotham.