The spectators at the stadium today were in for an afternoon of sunshine. 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. The following players took the field: Kęski - Reumert, Gerchkovich, Labanok - Erdem, Peshev, Steensen, Worm, Kapadia - Trung Tiệm, Madsen.

Lineup: Vadalà - Panigrahi, Jeftić - Chuan Yong, Ze Han, Mohammad Harun, Kamel, Parvathaneni - Mudaliar, Xin Seng, Egan.

The teams had chosen different formations for the match. The home team, Contract Killers, went for a 3-5-2, while Grilled Birds has decided to play a 2-5-3 lineup. Grilled clearly preferred using their divine (+7) (27) ability to attack in the middle today. Maciej Kęski looked great 23 minutes in after stopping a shot by the visitors' Bernie Egan. Some great play up the middle by Contract led to a chance for Evrim Erdem to get the go-ahead goal with 32 minutes played, but the shot hit the crossbar. It was obvious that Grilled had instructions to attack in the middle when they directed a break on the wing into the center of the park. Grilled took the lead 35 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. Vikram Mudaliar was the scorer. The visitors' Bernie Egan took advantage of a mix-up between the home side's goalie and center backs 37 minutes into the match. 0 - 2 for Grilled. 0 - 2 was the halftime score. Well, look at this! Cardi B is on the Enormotron in naught but giant sunglasses, red tassles, and a Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch tank top. I've not seen anything like it before. Grilled's Moey Xin Seng received a ball slotted perfectly through the home side's central defense after 62 minutes, and chipped it past the helpless keeper to increase the lead to 0 - 3. The away fans won't regret traveling for this one! As the 70 minute mark approached, the Contract manager decided it was time for a substitution. Shakti Kapadia reluctantly made way for Siegfried Günther. With the clock showing 70 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board. Bhavya Panigrahi looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for Gilbert Webb, though he would have liked to continue. Contract's Carlos María Gerchkovich sliced towards the middle after 72 minutes, receiving a sensational pass and carving through the visiting team's central defense, putting the goal away to make it 1 - 3. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Contract's Carlos María Gerchkovich got himself booked. 75 minutes into the game, Contract wanted to bring some new energy to their game. Carlos María Gerchkovich gave Ciprian Drăgaică a quick hug as he left the field. As Carlos María Gerchkovich left the field, the coach signaled to Siegfried Günther to start taking the set pieces that occurred. Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up coming through the center. With 76 minutes played, Salah Kamel nearly put the visitors up by one more as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot whizzed just over the bar. After 80 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Kalki Parvathaneni off. Heng Dong Chu took his place. 80 minutes into the match, the referee signaled for a Contract substitution. Martin Røjkjær came on for Antos' Labanok. As the match nears its end, the referee deemed it appropriate to add 1 minutes as stoppage time. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as Ciprian Drăgaică tried lifting the ball over keeper Manuel Vadalà. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. Contract's Trần Trung Tiệm blocked one attack after another by Grilled, finally picking the ball up for himself and powering through towards the goal. It paid off! 2-3 after 89 minutes. After 89 minutes, Grilled's lack of experience resulted in the team's loss of their edge at the end of the game. The match ends 2 - 3. Looks like Nate Silver was right again - his prediction that Grilled would have 52 percent possession in this half was spot on!

Franco Madsen performed admirably for Contract. Good thing Martin Røjkjær isn't a horse, because he'd surely be sent to the glue factory after that performance. Grilled's top performer was clearly Vikram Mudaliar. Even six year old fans were wincing at the poor play by Manuel Vadalà today.