Knights 3 - 6 Grilled
Clouds darkened the skies at the stadium today. Lineup:
Christie -
Fazli,
Ergül -
Kryachkov,
MacGarrow,
Crainey,
Culquhoun,
Gholoom -
Kastanis,
Petrusev,
Manica.
They fielded:
Salmiņš -
Carapaica,
Webb -
Kamel,
Chuan Yong,
Xin Lee,
Mohammad Harun,
Dong Chu -
Ze Han,
Egan,
Xin Seng.
A 2-5-3 was the choice of the day for both coaches. Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle, using their divine (+6) (26) ability to great effect. With 2 minutes played, Knights's
Matthew Crainey received a yellow card for challenging a play with his cleats first.
Levent Ergül had been tasked with man marking
Bilal Mohammad Harun. He did this well, but often fell out of position doing so, forcing his team mates to cover for him. Knights broke through on the left after 6 minutes, with
Darwish Gholoom firing at an impossible angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. Grilled tied it all up, 13 minutes in, after a spectacular goal by
Moey Xin Seng, who miraculously broke through the home side's central defense, making it 1 - 1. Grilled had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 14 minutes in when
Teo Chuan Yong found himself alone with
Wilfred Christie who managed a block. Oh, it's a stupendous shot on goal! A Caravaggio! A Michelangelo! A Venus on the Half Shell! 31 minutes into the match and
Kevin MacGarrow has created art for the ages for Knights, putting them ahead 2 - 1. Oh, I'm weeping. I can't stop my eyes. An equalizing goal was close at hand, but
Gilbert Webb clipped a free kick just wide of the goal. 2 - 1 was the halftime score. Grilled had the upper hand in possession, maintaining an impressive 52 percent possession of the ball.
46 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game.
Bernie Egan gave
Vikram Mudaliar a quick hug as he left the field. With the clock showing 46 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board.
Salah Kamel looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for
Kalki Parvathaneni, though he would have liked to continue. The visitors were awarded a penalty by the referee 69 minutes into the match, much to the anger of the home crowd.
Gilbert Webb took advantage of the situation and scored to make it 2 - 2.
Levent Ergül got left behind when Grilled's
Kalki Parvathaneni made a sudden rush forward in minute 70, finishing it off with a clinical strike. 2 - 3! After 71 minutes Knights were able to score the equalizing 3 - 3 goal when
Diamantis Kastanis picked up a pass coming in from the right and lofted it past the away team's keeper. The visiting
Vikram Mudaliar was booed thoroughly by the home crowd 77 minutes into the game, after he broke through the middle and scored, resulting in the visitors taking the lead. 3 - 4 was the score.
Vikram Mudaliar somehow managed to break free of his man on the left wing and only needed a relatively easy finish to bring Grilled's lead up to 3 - 5.
Darwish Gholoom did everything he could to get one back for the home crowd, but keeper
Jānis Salmiņš denied him with a spectacular save.
Moey Xin Seng of Grilled finished off the counter-attack from the left rather easily, making it 3 - 6. The referee decided to let play continue for an additional 3 beyond the regular 90 minutes. The match ends 3 - 6. Grilled set the tempo, maintaining 51 percent of possession.
Knights's best player was
Kevin MacGarrow. Speaking of stinking up the place,
Levent Ergül sure smelled like the bottom of Batman's shoe after a night of crimefighting in Gotham. The most outstanding Grilled player was without a doubt
Chan Ze Han. Good thing
Bilal Mohammad Harun isn't a horse, because he'd surely be sent to the glue factory after that performance.