Smeg 1 - 5 Grilled
ather conditions were fairly good for football, and Tonga Park No.2
Mario Sbaraglia was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Gabriel Florentino and
Wienand Pijnenburg. saw a crowd turnout of 3025. Smeg had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. They fielded: Matsuya - Rosener, Sarumara, Okanaya, Sato, Sasakawa - Yanagi, Shiotani, Sonoda, Miyazaki - Inoguchi.
Grilled had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Huel-sheng - Siu-Cheung, Tuan-Mu, bin Che Lah - Åhsten, Blissenbach, Kolesov, Kek-Tjiang, Linh-Nam - Chiew-Yen, Stern.
Smeg were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 11 minutes into the match left Grilled's
Joe Stern completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. The away team's
Chen Chiew-Yen took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 13 minutes which increased Grilled's lead to 0 - 2. Grilled's
Tim Blissenbach received a play slashing through the home side's central defense after 31 minutes, and chipped it past the keeper to score the 0 - 3 goal. The home crowd was not pleased with that one. By now, Grilled were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. 32 minutes into the game,
Itsuki Shiotani had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came
Kenneth Ludvigsen. After 35 minutes
Hiroyuki Yanagi could have reduced the lead with a blistering strike from the left wing, had it not been for an excellent block by the visitors' keeper. 0 - 3 was the halftime score. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams.
A misunderstanding between the visitors' keeper
Cheung Huel-sheng and his left defence could have resulted in a goal for Smeg, but
Makoto Inoguchi's finish was way too lame.
Joe Stern increased Grilled's lead to 0 - 4 with a superb free kick strike that flew in just under the far top corner. The situation leading to Smeg's penalty 59 minutes into the match was much debated after the match, but the competent
Makoto Inoguchi didn't hesitate to make the score 1 - 4. The visitors'
Joe Stern took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and central backs 73 minutes into the match. 1 - 5 for Grilled. At that,
Joe Stern was noted down for a hat trick. Smeg claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 56 percent.
The most dominating Smeg player was without a doubt
Genji Sonoda.
Makoto Inoguchi was a disappointment, however. Grilled's best player was
Shen Kek-Tjiang.
Milen Kolesov on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 5.