It was a scorching day at the stadium today. For some players the sunny weather was bad news. It made Powerful and Quick players a bit sluggish. For Technical players, it was instead an advantage, allowing them to shine on the pitch.
Grilled's lineup was:
Marcol -
Himadas,
Pyae Ko -
Reddy,
長野 (Nagano),
Teck Fu,
Keng Chuan,
Andrović -
Thach,
Chitre,
An Keng.
The following players took the field for
Pizza:
Šturman -
Hauksteinsson,
N'Dao,
Iliev -
Petruni,
Zanabria,
Ihracký,
Kurlapski,
Łowny -
Rorhring,
Mazarredo.
The teams had chosen different formations for the match. Home team
Grilled Birds went for 2-5-3 while
Pizza de Kiwi FC has decided to play a 3-5-2 lineup.
Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle, taking advantage of their
divine (+6) level with that tactic. Making his way up the middle 2 minutes into the match,
Lim An Keng almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert
Gaj Šturman blocked it to keep the score level. The crowd groaned its disapproval when
Raúl Himadas missed a free kick that would have given
Grilled the lead after 4 minutes. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for
Grilled, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Some great play up the middle by
Grilled led to a chance for
Darko 'Donnie' Andrović to score after 17 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. The guests took the lead 21 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in
Óscar Mazarredo scoring to make it 0 - 1. The visitors'
Stanisław Łowny took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 32 minutes into the match. 0 - 2 for
Pizza. The referee showed
Grilled's
元気 (Genki) 長野 (Nagano) the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After 37 minutes,
Lim An Keng had a good opportunity to reduce the scoreline for
Grilled with a chance created through the middle, but wasn't cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. After 38 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed
Óscar Mazarredo to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 3. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 3.
Grilled claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.
Gandhik Chitre challenged the visitors' central defence eagerly, producing a good chance 52 minutes into the game as he went for a through ball. But, as so many times before, the guests' defensive efforts got the best of it.
Chad Thach did everything he could to get one back for his
Grilled, but keeper
Gaj Šturman denied him with a spectacular block. After 60 minutes, the defensive line of
Pizza created a counterattack through the middle that gave
Óscar Mazarredo a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Some fine movement on the left led to a
Pizza goal after 61 minutes, making it 0 - 4.
Leopold Ihracký was noted down as the scorer.
Grilled's
Lim An Keng managed a superb strike from the left after 68 minutes that would have left goalkeeper
Gaj Šturman without a chance, had it not hit the post.
Pizza's
Hernando Zanabria made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 73 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. The home side worked their way through the middle and almost got one back when
Raúl Himadas tried to sneak the ball past the keeper.
Gaj Šturman was too alert for that! After 77 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for
Hernando Zanabria who increased
Pizza's lead to 0 - 5.
Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as
Hwang Teck Fu tried lifting the ball over keeper
Gaj Šturman. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. 89 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a
Grilled substitution.
Kendell El Khateeb came on for
Brian 'Was Born' Reddy. As the 89 minute mark approached, the
Grilled coach decided it was time for a substitution.
Raúl Himadas reluctantly made way for
Damian Hutter on the pitch. As
Raúl Himadas left the field, the coach signaled to
Aw Keng Chuan to be the new set pieces taker.
Lim An Keng would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul entered the game for
Grilled as the match clock showed 89 minutes. The referee decided to let play continue for an additional 1 minute beyond the regular 90 minutes. The match ends 0 - 5. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by
Grilled, with 54 percent of the ball.
Grilled's top performer was clearly
Radomil Marcol.
Hernando Zanabria performed admirably for
Pizza.