Grilled Birds entered the field in a 2-5-3 formation. The visitors, New York Cosmos, chose to start the game with a 3-5-2 lineup.Grilled mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle, taking advantage of their utopian level with that tactic.Grilled's L. Aik Jia was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - R. Isufi managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 1 - 0 after 22 minutes.Grilled were given a gift! The ref dubiously awarded them a penalty 28 minutes into the match, which was neatly put away by G. Dvorak. 2 - 0 for the home side.With 33 minutes played, Grilled put themselves up 3 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to R. Isufi, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home.The muddy pitch made the game a gritty affair, which seemed to suit H. Văn Minh just fine.L. Aik Jia, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass.With 40 minutes showing on the scoreboard clock, Cosmos showed some good skill and were able to reduce the score to 3 - 1 when H. Văn Minh got past the home side's central defenders right in front of the goal.H. Văn Minh had a lethal looking free kick that grazed the post after 41 minutes.Halftime score was 3 - 1.Grilled claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.
Grilled's G. Dvorak struck his penalty well enough to beat the goalkeeper and extend the home team's lead to 4 - 1 after 55 minutes.After 60 minutes, Cosmos used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach.G. Aagren of Cosmos received a yellow card after 60 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour.The visitors replied 67 minutes into the game, reducing the home side's lead to 4 - 2, as N. Kostadinović dashed up the middle, easily lobbing the ball over the home team's keeper.The Cosmos players listened closely to their manager, as he gave new tactical instructions for the team.A bit later, Cosmos's G. Aagren easily reduced the lead to 4 - 3 after a misunderstanding in the home side's central defence.The referee was not popular with the home supporters after he awarded Cosmos a controversial penalty after 83 minutes. H. Văn Minh made no mistake, levelling the score at 4 - 4.Grilled's H. Prabhu tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but couldn't get past the visitors' defenders.The referee announced 1 minute of stoppage time, giving fans a slim hope that their team could get one more attack in before this was all over.After 90 minutes, Cosmos began to show their lack of experience and they threatened to wilt under the heavy pressure from their opposition.The match ends 4 - 4.Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Grilled, with 52 percent of the ball.
The most dominating Grilled player was without a doubt R. Isufi.However, K. Rykowski made a disastrous appearance.Cosmos's top performer was clearly H. Văn Minh.C. Mastai was a disappointment, however.
