Penha Pour
Miranda Right
Grilled gave Brazillian Division Three frontrunners Penha-RJ Football Club a good game in the non-English home of football, as they went ahead twice before succumbing to the home side's simple 4-4-2 passing game.
The first goal in fact came more from a mess-up by Penha than any cleverness on Grilled's part, as the backline thought that Öhmo's goal kick would bounce safely through to Gustavsson. They didn't count on
Joe Stern making a race out of it, and the Canadian got a toe in before the Penha goalie arrived.
Frank Öhmo followed his unexpected assist with a lovely save off Marcelo Couto in the eleventh minute, after the Penha defender swung a free-kick Roberto Carlos-style at his far post. Öhmo couldn't do the same with Miguel Ângelo Rosa's wickedly breaking strike from outside the box, but Seng-Huat was nearby and put a leg in the way.
Grilled's goal was eventually breached in the 32nd minute, as the speedy Samuel Santos picked his moment and got in behind the defence, as Seng-Huat stretched but missed the crucial interception. Santos then sent it past Bao-Tam with the outside of his foot.
Asher Stanton then put Grilled ahead once more as Penha-RJ proved lax in defence once again, and the Birds then concentrated on defending their unlikely lead, with
Nui Pakpao doing his part by kicking Santos out of the game, getting a yellow card in return.
Penha were not quite done, and Swedish substitute Roffe Ranman proved a more consistent threat than Santos had been with his effective holding up play. Penha's constant pressing forced Stanton to dribble with the ball in his own penalty area, and he came within a whisker of scoring an own goal when he finally decided to concede the corner.
Antonio Conde Miranda then lobbed Öhmo to wreck Grilled's plans, and they should have ended the contest in regulation time after Couto dished out another ridiculously good free-kick, that pinged Grilled's crossbar.
Having somehow survived the ninety minutes, Grilled primed themselves for an exhausting period of extra time, but it turned out to be as short as three minutes as Miranda knocked in the golden goal.
