Sosellah 2 - 8 Grilled
Dark skies made the crowd of 4088 at
Al Sosellah Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off.
Castor Calqueiro was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Bengt-Åke Olenhult and
George Coulter. The following players had been chosen:
Orfanos -
Abu Shaqra,
Badran,
El-Wazani,
Tindalíð -
Ammouri,
Mazhar,
Zamel,
Rautsiala,
Braiji -
Yousif.
Lineup:
Dob -
Webb,
中北 (Nakakita) -
Muthyala,
Xin Lee,
Dong Chu,
Parvathaneni,
Mohammad Harun -
Mottl,
Egan,
Velho.
Al Sosellah fielded a 4-5-1 lineup. For Grilled Birds, the formation of choice was 2-5-3. Grilled tried to focus their attacks down the middle, taking advantage of their divine (+4) level with that tactic. Grilled had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. A mistake by the home side's central defence after 5 minutes allowed
Neeraj Muthyala to score for Grilled. The scoreboard now read 0 - 1. After 16 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave
Bernie Egan a chance to increase the lead for Grilled, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 2. 29 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 3 as
Bernie Egan finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. 31 minutes into the game Sosellah broke through on the left wing and
Kedar Badran managed to reduce the lead to 1 - 3. Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally.
Prokop Mottl received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 36 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 1 - 4. The Grilled fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. After 38 minutes of game time,
José Luiz Velho had an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors' lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but
Makis Orfanos was in the right place and tipped the ball over for a corner. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 4. Grilled claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 66 percent.
After 46 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving
Massoud Dob off the field.
Dan Seng took his place. After 47 minutes, Grilled's
Bernie Egan burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 5. That made three goals for
Bernie Egan and he was marked down for the hat trick. Sosellah's
Anan Yousif managed a superb strike from the left after 58 minutes that would have left goalkeeper
Dan Seng without a chance, had it not hit the post. After 61 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for
Kalki Parvathaneni who increased Grilled's lead to 1 - 6. 67 minutes into the match, Sosellah's
Kadir Ammouri collected a ball sent down the right and put it in the back of the net, narrowing the score to 2 - 6. The visitors'
Kalki Parvathaneni took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 69 minutes into the match. 2 - 7 for Grilled.
悠太 (Yuta) 中北 (Nakakita) of Grilled took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 74 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 2 - 8.
Bernie Egan would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise.
Chirag Thevar entered the game for Grilled as the match clock showed 80 minutes. 89 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game.
José Luiz Velho gave
Dante Tran a quick hug as he left the field. The players were tired, but when the referee announced that there would be 3 minutes of added time they, nonetheless, welcomed the extra opportunity to make an impact. The match ends 2 - 8. Grilled enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 64 percent of possession.
Sosellah's best player was
Lauri Rautsiala. On the other hand,
Makis Orfanos's play was disheartening. The most dominating Grilled player was without a doubt
Kalki Parvathaneni. However,
Dan Seng made a disastrous appearance.