Haha 6 - 1 Grilled
67251 spectators arrived at
Hehe Arena, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.
William Cepeda was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Mario Irelli and
Piotr Brzozowski. The following players had been chosen:
Andino -
Nie Yew,
Turpeenniemi,
Khairil Syahmi -
Al-Hamed,
Iyer,
Kerber,
Yun Shi,
Nemarić -
Foo,
Hadice.
Lineup:
Dob -
Webb,
中北 (Nakakita) -
Künzler,
Xin Seng,
Mohammad Harun,
Xin Lee,
Romijn -
Mudaliar,
Ze Han,
Parvathaneni.
Haha started the game in a 3-5-2 formation, whereas Grilled Birds lined up in a 2-5-3 formation. Grilled clearly preferred using their divine (+5) ability to attack in the middle. Haha's
Nasrul Haq Khairil Syahmi was man marking
Chan Ze Han, and did it well, but often at the cost of abandoning his own position.
Jarosław Kerber gave Haha the lead as he successfully challenged the guests' central defenders, then slotted the ball into the bottom corner, giving the keeper no chance. 1 - 0
悠太 (Yuta) 中北 (Nakakita) got left behind when Haha's
Nicholas Foo left scorch marks in the turf 18 minutes, finishing off with a blisteringly swift strike. 2-0! After 21 minutes,
Cyril Künzler came close to reducing the score with a free kick aimed near the left post, but
Carlos Andino warded the ball off to a corner. Haha's
Nicholas Foo was shown a yellow card after 31 minutes for slicing down an opponent.
Haha put themselves up 3 - 0 when
Arif Hadice broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. The home team's fans were upset when, after 36 minutes, the visiting
Kalki Parvathaneni broke through the central defence and kicked the ball past the keeper. 3 - 1 was the score. Haha solidified their lead at the 37 minute mark, as
Vignesh Iyer dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 4 - 1.
Ng Yun Shi should probably have put his team up another goal after 39 minutes after breaking through the middle, but some great goalkeeping by
Massoud Dob kept the visitors in the game. 40 minutes into the game, Grilled's attack got through on the right, but
悠太 (Yuta) 中北 (Nakakita) couldn't handle the ball and his feeble kick wound up in the keeper's arms. Having just succeeded in blocking a dangerous counter attack, the defending team was outwitted by the follow-up Haha free kick. The routine was expertly executed as the ball was shifted quickly to one side of the box, then back to the other.
Noa Nemarić appeared on cue near the post, and steered it past the goalie. 5 - 1, after 41 minutes. It was 5 - 1 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to Haha, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.
46 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a Grilled substitution.
Bhavya Panigrahi came on for
悠太 (Yuta) 中北 (Nakakita).
Bilal Mohammad Harun would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise.
Neeraj Muthyala entered the game for Grilled as the match clock showed 46 minutes.
Neeraj Muthyala was unable to continue, following a severe injury to his right knee, 47 minutes into the match. This gave
Hoàng Trung Quá a chance to take to the field instead. After 63 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and
Arif Hadice gave the Haha supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 6 - 1. With 70 minutes played,
Arif Hadice could have brought this one home for Haha as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high.
Vignesh Iyer had a fantastic opportunity to put Haha up another goal 73 minutes into the match after a pass through the middle set him free, but he fired just over the crossbar. The referee announced 3 minutes of stoppage time, giving fans a slim hope that their team could get one more attack in before this was all over. The match ends 6 - 1. Haha claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.
Arif Hadice performed admirably for Haha. However,
Nasrul Haq Khairil Syahmi made a disastrous appearance. Most important Grilled player was
Vikram Mudaliar.
Hoàng Trung Quá on the other hand, had a terrible day.