CIA 7 - 0 Grilled
Fairly good weather for football at the stadium today. They fielded:
Murga -
Stojić,
Park,
Balul,
Ferreira Leal -
Fois,
Martínez,
Pos,
Johansen,
Knehr -
Hafþórsson.
The following players had been selected:
Vadalà -
Panigrahi,
Webb -
Baena,
Mohammad Harun,
Keng Chuan,
Chuan Yong,
Trindade -
Ze Han,
Velho,
Xin Seng.
The teams had chosen different formations for the match. The home team, Cocos Island Allstars, went for a 4-5-1, while Grilled Birds has decided to play a 2-5-3 lineup. Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle, using their utopian (19) ability to great effect. CIA fans held their breath as
Aimo Fois gallivanted down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and fired home the go-ahead goal for 1 - 0!
Ohad Balul stuck like glue to
Chan Ze Han, diminishing the Grilled player's contribution in the match! CIA's
Ohad Balul was shown a yellow card after 6 minutes for slicing down an opponent.
The visitors'
Bhavya Panigrahi came close to leveling the score after 13 minutes with a free kick that went just wide of the top left corner.
Seung-Jo Park struck a 30 yard free kick home after 18 minutes. 2 - 0 for the home team. CIA added another goal to their lead as
Adrian Knehr struck home for 3 - 0 after an attack from the left set him up unmarked in front of the keeper. The incalculable
Fedor Murga of CIA did everything right as he set up
Adrian Knehr for a goal after 32 minutes. Unfortunately, the strike missed its target. After 33 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by
Aimo Fois might have resulted in another goal for CIA. However,
Manuel Vadalà made a spectacular save. It was 3 - 0 at the break. CIA had the upper hand in possession, maintaining an impressive 51 percent possession of the ball.
46 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game.
José Luiz Velho gave
Prokop Mottl a quick hug as he left the field.
Bjarnfreður Hafþórsson gave CIA supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 0 after 60 minutes, following a good exchange of passes on the right that the away team failed to deal with. After 70 minutes,
Bjarnfreður Hafþórsson put CIA ahead 5 - 0 when he rose to head in a hooked ball, the result of an effort from the right side. With the clock showing 71 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board.
Gertjan Pos looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for
Dariusz Figler, though he would have liked to continue. 71 minutes into the match, the referee signaled for a CIA substitution.
Florian Lilgenau came on for
Bjarnfreður Hafþórsson. Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up coming through the center.
Aimo Fois increased CIA's lead to 6 - 0, connecting with a hooked ball from the right. The away fans are claiming handball, to no avail. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased CIA's lead to 7 - 0 as
Dariusz Figler finished it off clinically, firing the shot from a terrible angle. After 80 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving
Aw Keng Chuan off.
Chad Thach took his place. 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, CIA's
Florian Lilgenau finally got himself booked for a foul.
Florian Lilgenau had a fantastic opportunity to put CIA up another goal 84 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. The referee decided to let play continue for an additional 3 beyond the regular 90 minutes. The match ends 7 - 0. Looks like Nate Silver was right again - his prediction that CIA would have 54 percent possession in this half was spot on!
The most outstanding CIA player was without a doubt
Florian Lilgenau. Speaking of stinking up the place,
Ohad Balul sure smelled like the bottom of Batman's shoe after a night of crimefighting in Gotham. Grilled's top performer was clearly
Teo Chuan Yong. I can't remember
Enrique Baena ever having a worse night than he just had.