Dark skies made the crowd at the stadium today a little nervous, but the rain held off. The following players had been selected: Davids - Balboa, Plantinga, Hoftun - Guia, Khajehpour, Mungroo, Ziembikiewicz, Burguera - Signate, Koech.

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

O.K.S. Dachowiec trundled out to the pitch in a 3-5-2 formation. The visitors, Grilled Birds, chose to start the game with a 2-5-3 lineup. Dachowce showed off their creative tactics. Grilled mostly ignored the flanks in favor of their divine (+7) (27) ability to attack in the middle. After 5 minutes, Grilled put themselves up 0 - 1, as Salah Kamel finished off a play from the left with a real rocket. A beautiful, arcing corner kick from Mateja Jeftić found Moey Xin Seng at the far post, soaring to meet the ball. The keeper is late and he's headed it in for 0 - 2! Dachowce's Narde Plantinga sliced towards the middle after 25 minutes, receiving a sensational pass and carving through the visiting team's central defense, putting the goal away to make it 1 - 2. After 31 minutes, Grilled's Salah Kamel burst through the central defense and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 3. 36 minutes into the match, Bilal Mohammad Harun came through the middle and almost added to his team's lead, but the shot went wide. The visitors' Salah Kamel took advantage of a mix-up between the home side's goalie and center backs 38 minutes into the match. 1 - 4 for Grilled. One, two, three goals! That completed a hattrick for Salah Kamel. AH! AH! AH! 1 - 4 was the score after the first half. 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. With the clock showing 60 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. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as Szymon Ziembikiewicz tried lifting the ball over keeper Jānis Salmiņš. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. Grilled's Salah Kamel made it through the home team's defense on the right hand side 64 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded net when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. Always quick on his feet, Grilled's Vikram Mudaliar sped down the field after 69 minutes, but his pass to Bernie Egan was just a bit too far ahead for him to get a good shot off. Oh dear, hide the children! 79 minutes into the match, Roy Hoftun came down the left flank with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other. He's annihilated the defense and devastated the keeper! Goal for Dachowce, reducing the lead to 2 - 4. After 80 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Kalki Parvathaneni off. 吴 (Wu) 敬龙 (Jinglong) took his place. 80 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game. Bilal Mohammad Harun gave Kalle ter Berg a quick hug as he left the field. After 80 minutes, Grilled's lack of experience resulted in the team's loss of their edge at the end of the game. 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's Bernie Egan received a ball slotted perfectly through the home side's central defense after 83 minutes, and chipped it past the helpless keeper to increase the lead to 2 - 5. The away fans won't regret traveling for this one! At 84 minutes into the game, Dachowce's Brian Koech cooly knocked the ball home after an impressive run down the left, reducing the visitors' lead to 3 - 5. The players were tired, but when the referee announced that there would be 3 minutes of added time, they welcomed the extra opportunity to make an impact. After more pushing and shoving than a pack of helicopter moms trying to get the last appointment for their snowflakes to see the Easter Bunny, Dachowce's Majid Khajehpour finally got himself booked for a foul. The match ends 3 - 5. Grilled did a good job holding on to the ball, with 54 percent of possession. We'll be back after these interminable commercial messages.

The most outstanding Dachowce player was without a doubt Brian Koech. I can't remember Narde Plantinga ever having a worse night than he just had. Most important Grilled player was Chan Ze Han. Even six year old fans were wincing at the poor play by Teo Chuan Yong today.