The crowd turning up at the stadium today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. The wet pitch made it difficult for technical or quick players to stand out. For once, the players relying on physical strength gained the upper hand. Starters: Çalkan - Uhrin, Santos-Guzmán, Alexiu - Díaz, Matchett, Dykstra, Serup, Rehepap - Sprinzak, Douglas.

Lineup: Salmiņš - Panigrahi, Carapaica - Kannan, Parvathaneni, Xin Seng, Xin Lee, Kamel - Ze Han, Mudaliar, Mazhud.

The teams had chosen different formations for the match. The home team, Severense FC, went for a 3-5-2, while Grilled Birds has decided to play a 2-5-3 lineup. Grilled clearly preferred using their divine (+6) (26) ability to attack in the middle today. Grilled had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle instead. 0 - 1 was the score after 10 minutes, when Grilled's Kalki Parvathaneni cut through the central defense and pounded one in. 12 minutes into the game, Grilled were awarded a penalty and Bhavya Panigrahi was able to increase the visitors' lead to 0 - 2, rolling the ball in off the right post. Big paper red cards were being held up by the opposing supporters with 20 minutes on the clock after Chan Ze Han's mistimed tackle from behind. The referee only showed the Grilled player a yellow card though. The visitors' Chu Xin Lee took advantage of a mix-up between the home side's goalie and center backs 42 minutes into the match. 0 - 3 for Grilled. The game had been going for 43 minutes when Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 4 for Grilled, much to the home crowd's dismay. Speedy Kalki Parvathaneni tried one of his patented runs 44 minutes into the game, but Silviu Alexiu was just as fast and averted the attack. 0 - 4 was the score after the first half. Grilled had the upper hand in possession, maintaining an impressive 60 percent possession of the ball.

After 60 minutes, the Severense coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Stig Serup off. Auguste Brown took his place. As the 75 minute mark approached, the Grilled manager decided it was time for a substitution. Salah Kamel reluctantly made way for Heng Dong Chu. With the clock showing 80 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board. Chu Xin Lee looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for Teo Chuan Yong, though he would have liked to continue. 80 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game. Douglas Carapaica gave Gilbert Webb a quick hug as he left the field. The fourth official announced that there would be 1 minutes of stoppage time, giving fans a slim hope that their team could get one more attack in before this was all over. The match ends 0 - 4. Grilled did a good job holding on to the ball, with 60 percent of possession. We'll be back after these interminable commercial messages.

Most important Severense player was Chris Douglas. Even six year old fans were wincing at the poor play by Silviu Alexiu today. Chan Ze Han performed admirably for Grilled. I can't remember Bhavya Panigrahi ever having a worse night than he just had.