Grilled 6 - 1 Jovan
Fairly good weather for football at the stadium today. The following players took the field:
Germanakos -
Panigrahi,
Webb -
Baena,
Mohammad Harun,
Keng Chuan,
Parvathaneni,
Trindade -
Ze Han,
Velho,
Xin Seng.
Lineup:
Day -
Sellar,
Vukov,
Pupper -
Trinh,
Kelemen,
Hank�,
Beardsall -
Petrini,
Puelles,
Pritchard.
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 3-4-3. Grilled seemed to prefer attacking in the middle, using their utopian (19) ability to great effect. Almost all the way down at the corner flag, Grilled's
Paulino Trindade somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for
Moey Xin Seng, who scored for 1 - 0. The clock read 6 minutes and things were deteriorating for the away team as Grilled scored another to make it 2 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for
Gilbert Webb. After 20 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by
Paulino Trindade might have resulted in another goal for Grilled. However,
Vance Day made a spectacular save. Grilled were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up coming through the center.
Jos� Luiz Velho was not content with his team's lead, and tried to extend it 23 minutes into the game after a nice run through the middle, but his shot went wide. Grilled managed to extend their lead to 3 - 0 when
Chan Ze Han slid in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. At the 28 minute mark, it looked like the opportunity for Grilled to score had been missed when suddenly
Enrique Baena worked his way clear and fired off a spectacular shot. The keeper had no chance! 4 - 0.
Jos� Luiz Velho gave Grilled supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 5 - 0 after 33 minutes, following a good exchange of passes on the right that the away team failed to deal with. It was 5 - 0 at the break. Looks like Nate Silver was right again - his prediction that Grilled would have 62 percent possession in this half was spot on!
46 minutes into the match, the referee signaled for a Grilled substitution.
Lim An Keng came on for
Kalki Parvathaneni. With the clock showing 46 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board.
Jos� Luiz Velho looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for
Prokop Mottl, though he would have liked to continue. The cannonball from 35 yards by
Lim An Keng of Grilled was an impressive attempt, but didn't make it into the net.
Bilal Mohammad Harun could have put Grilled up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 63 minutes. Jovan caught their opponents out with a clever counter-attack down the right wing 64 minutes into the game.
Lucas Trinh was there to finish off the move - 5 - 1! With 70 minutes played,
Chan Ze Han could have brought this one home for Grilled as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. After a play down the right 71 minutes into the match, Grilled's
Chan Ze Han unleashed a ferocious shot that smashed into the roof of the net - after going over the crossbar. Grilled players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. Cheers filled the stadium as
Lim An Keng broke through the visitors' central defense to put away the 6 - 1 goal for Grilled. After 80 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving
Bilal Mohammad Harun off.
Chia Kwang Tse took his place. As the match nears its end, the referee deemed it appropriate to add 3 minutes as stoppage time. The match ends 6 - 1. Grilled had the upper hand in possession, maintaining an impressive 58 percent possession of the ball.
Grilled's top performer was clearly
Chan Ze Han. Good thing
Paulino Trindade isn't a horse, because he'd surely be sent to the glue factory after that performance.
N�ndor Kelemen performed admirably for Jovan. Speaking of stinking up the place,
Theron Sellar sure smelled like the bottom of Batman's shoe after a night of crimefighting in Gotham.