We had overcast weather free of rain at the stadium today. Starters: Stasinopoulos - Entromos, Andreoulakis, Asimenios, Kreziadis, Stratigos - Mareau, Henderson, Yusta - Jocić, Gönülden.

The following players had been selected: Germanakos - Panigrahi, Webb - An Keng, Mohammad Harun, Keng Chuan, Parvathaneni, Trindade - Ze Han, Xin Seng, Chitre.

The teams had chosen different formations for the match. The home team, Aprothimos Glyfadas, went for a 5-3-2, while Grilled Birds has decided to play a 2-5-3 lineup. Using their mythical (17) counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Aprothimos today. Grilled clearly preferred using their mythical (17) 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. After 11 minutes, Grilled's Chan Ze Han made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. 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, Aprothimos's Richardos Entromos finally got himself booked for a foul. Moey Xin Seng will have Excedrin Headache number 5 after heading home the hard corner kick from Bhavya Panigrahi after 28 minutes of play. I'm sure that making the score 0 - 2 will assuage him a bit, though. Big paper red cards were being held up by the opposing supporters with 33 minutes on the clock after Kalki Parvathaneni's mistimed tackle from behind. The referee only showed the Grilled player a yellow card though. The referee showed Aprothimos's Kostas Stratigos the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Aprothimos's Nontas Asimenios was shown a yellow card after 37 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Brady Henderson was in the clear after breaking through the offside trap following a Aprothimos counter-attack from the left with 39 minutes played. His neat finish made the score 1 - 2. Aprothimos had a great opportunity to score following a counter-attack after 43 minutes, but Mladen Jocić's shot from the left sailed high over the bar. 1 - 2 was the halftime score. Grilled set the tempo, maintaining 62 percent of possession.

After 46 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the field, waving Kalki Parvathaneni off. Chia Kwang Tse took his place. 46 minutes into the game, Grilled wanted to bring some new energy to their game. Bilal Mohammad Harun gave Chad Thach a quick hug as he left the field. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Grilled, and they were successfully passing the ball from the wing into the middle at the behest of their coach. Aprothimos's defense sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counter-attack with 58 minutes gone, but Sancho Yusta's finish was met by the firm hands of the keeper. With the clock showing 60 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board. Moey Xin Seng 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. Despite the fact that he was falling backwards, Lim An Keng still managed to send an excellent header goalwards. The crossbar is the keeper's best friend though, and the ball bounced harmlessly out of play. A counter-attack by Aprothimos after 80 minutes could have resulted in a goal, but Kostas Stratigos, coming in on the left, waited too long to shoot. The fourth official announced that there would be 2 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 1 - 2. Looks like Nate Silver was right again - his prediction that Grilled would have 63 percent possession in this half was spot on!

Most important Aprothimos player was Mladen Jocić. You can tell it was nickel beer night yesterday at the local bar because Kostas Stasinopoulos seemed to stumble all over the pitch. Chan Ze Han performed admirably for Grilled. I can't remember Gilbert Webb ever having a worse night than he just had.