Dark skies made the crowd at the stadium today a little nervous, but the rain held off. Starters: Salmiņš - Panigrahi, Carapaica - Kannan, Chuan Yong, Mazhud, Xin Lee, Kamel - Ze Han, Mudaliar, Xin Seng.

The following players had been selected: Sueste - Declerck, Cortelazzo, Vega - Krohn, Brady, Lambert, Paggi, Zambianchi - Buffery, Silverfine.

It was to be a contest between two different football philosophies, since the home team started the game with a 2-5-3 formation while the visitors instead opted for a 3-5-2. Grilled clearly preferred using their divine (+5) (25) ability to attack in the middle today. Gleneagles's Carlo Zambianchi had a good first touch on the flank, but was quickly closed down so he crossed to Travis Buffery who somehow managed to curl the ball wide. The Gleneagles free kick 10 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But it was no mistake - Matthias Brady seemingly came out of nowhere and had miles of space to control the ball and pick his spot. That's 0 - 1! After 18 minutes of play, Vikram Mudaliar equalized for Grilled after a hard charging attack from the right. A questionable penalty after 23 minutes gave the home side the lead, 2 - 1. The visitors' goalie didn't stand a chance as Bhavya Panigrahi knocked the ball home. Grilled put themselves up 3 - 1 when Vikram Mudaliar broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive delegation behind him. 3 - 1 was the score after the first half. Looks like Nate Silver was right again - his prediction that Grilled would have 51 percent possession in this half was spot on!

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. After 46 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Douglas Carapaica off. Gilbert Webb took his place. Vikram Mudaliar was not content with his team's lead, and tried to extend it 47 minutes into the game after a nice run through the middle, but his shot went wide. Grilled's Chu Xin Lee saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates 50 minutes in. Morale on the visitors' bench was greatly improved when their player Peter Silverfine scored to make it 3 - 2 after 64 minutes, following a good pass from the right. Grilled players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. Things were going from bad to worse for the visitors. Gilbert Webb was able to squirm through the central defense after 73 minutes and score, bringing the lead to 4 - 2. The visitors' right side was dangerous today; Carlo Zambianchi made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily scored, reducing the gap to 4 - 3 after 82 minutes. As the 89 minute mark approached, the Grilled manager decided it was time for a substitution. Chan Ze Han reluctantly made way for Radovan Jaška. The referee decided to let play continue for an additional 2 beyond the regular 90 minutes. The home team will be cursing Travis Buffery for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem 89 minutes in. It's anyone's game now! 4 - 4. The match ends 4 - 4. Grilled did a good job holding on to the ball, with 51 percent of possession. We'll be back after these interminable commercial messages.

Most important Grilled player was Vikram Mudaliar. You can tell it was nickel beer night yesterday at the local bar because Radovan Jaška seemed to stumble all over the pitch. Gleneagles's best player was Travis Buffery. Good thing Rodolpho Luiz Sueste isn't a horse, because he'd surely be sent to the glue factory after that performance.