The rain was pouring down at the stadium today. 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. They fielded: Jansson - Brolin, Brannen - Adolfsson, Bacigalupi, Nesslind, Reydet, Håkansson - Hoeder, Tillskär, Omiccioli.

Starters: Salmiņš - Panigrahi, Carapaica - Kannan, Parvathaneni, Xin Seng, Chuan Yong, Kamel - Ze Han, Mudaliar, Mazhud.

The coaches were in sync today, as both teams lined up in a 2-5-3 formation. Grilled went for a narrow approach, using their divine (+5) (25) ability to focus their attacks down the middle. After 2 minutes, Grilled's Vikram Mudaliar made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. Some fine one-twos on the left led to a Grilled goal with 7 minutes gone, making it 0 - 2. Vikram Mudaliar was noted down as the scorer. Instead of another goal, the traveling Grilled fans got the ball after Bhavya Panigrahi slipped and sent his penalty embarrassingly wide and into the crowd 9 minutes into the game. The referee showed Grilled's Salah Kamel the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A misunderstanding between the visitors' keeper Jānis Salmiņš and his left defense could have resulted in a goal for stripes, but Anshelm Håkansson's finish was way too meek. stripes's Cesare Omiccioli sliced towards the middle after 16 minutes, receiving a sensational pass and carving through the visiting team's central defense, putting the goal away to make it 1 - 2. It was 1 - 2 at the break. Grilled did a good job holding on to the ball, with 55 percent of possession. We'll be back after these interminable commercial messages.

46 minutes into the match, the referee signaled for a stripes substitution. Flurin Fischer came on for Tomas Brolin. After 46 minutes, the stripes coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Houston Brannen off. Todor Pulev took his place. Moey Xin Seng 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 1 - 3. A thrilling play through the middle after 67 minutes gave Grilled's Salah Kamel a chance to increase the lead, and he happily obliged. The score was then 1 - 4. After 69 minutes, Grilled's Salah Kamel burst through the central defense and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 5. 70 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. Some lightning fast dribbles by Marius Adolfsson left Moey Xin Seng way behind after 74 minutes, but the shot was just wide. Grilled's Bhavya Panigrahi missed a penalty 79 minutes into the match. He swung his leg too early, producing a weak shot that the keeper could collect at his own leisure. It was announced by the fourth official that he estimated stoppage time to be around 1 minutes. This meant there could still be an extra attack or two left in the match! The game had been going for 89 minutes when Vikram Mudaliar broke through on the right, upping the score to 1 - 6 for Grilled, much to the home crowd's dismay. At that, Vikram Mudaliar was noted down for a hattrick! The match ends 1 - 6. 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. stripes's best player was Peter-Jan Hoeder. You can tell it was nickel beer night yesterday at the local bar because Todor Pulev seemed to stumble all over the pitch. Chan Ze Han performed admirably for Grilled. Speaking of stinking up the place, Bhavya Panigrahi sure smelled like the bottom of Batman's shoe after a night of crimefighting in Gotham.