Grilled Birds 3 - 1
mist 
Late Demisting
Back With A Bang
Maikel Rotteveel snapped out of his three-match scoring funk with his tenth career hat-trick against mist, who seemed rightly more interested in their first Cup final come Wednesday. Not that there was ever going to be really top-drawer skill on show in the pouring rain, but it would still have been a shame to drop points at home - which looked to be the case with ten minutes to go.
Attendance was poor due to the weather, and not helped by the absence of mist's new Ecuadorean ex-international signing Francisco Javier O'shee. Still without the injured
Lorenz Paullin, and with Spirig suspended, Grilled had little choice but to play a straight 4-4-2. One good thing that came of it was that the 19 year-old reigning Young Player of the Season
Ciro Penati was given a chance to shine of the left wing, and though he wasn't especially eyecatching he didn't do much wrong and should get more looks in the future.
mist were the stronger side early on, and had their Finnish winger Ville-Mikko Rännare not been hampered by the slow pitch, Grilled may have paid dearly more than once. As it was, they were lucky to escape when Swiss ex-international Alois Ramon failed to connect right in front of goal when Rännare put in a tempting cross, but went behind after the clearance went straight back to Franz Schauer, who hoofed it past Valdir without a second thought.
Going behind shocked the Grilled players into greater exertions, and they managed to level up two minutes later. The visitors were still gamely going for a second goal, and were taken aback when
Han Lik-Tsun tidied up with a neat tackle and immediately sent Rotteveel sprinting dead ahead with a cutting ground pass in one smooth motion. The Dutch striker needed no further invitation to chase it down and smash the equaliser past Latvian goalie Fricis Rimevics.
As the rain became heavier, any semblance of technique disappeared, and the players appeared to spend more effort finding their footing than actually practising football. mist forward Ahmad Termuzi bin Mohd Esahar was one of those, as he clattered clumsily into Zoltan Árva from the back in a way that would have seen him sent off under better conditions. Given the state of the field, the referee thought it appropriate to let him off with a yellow card instead.
The game appeared to be heading for a boring stalemate, when Maikel proved his worth once more. Though Li Keong Soon had been his match for most of the game, all Maikel needed was to sell one dummy to render all his previous work useless. Having divested himself of his shadow, Rotteveel then dribbled around the vulnerable goalkeeper to give Grilled the lead.
mist battled valiantly to rescue their point, but were caught out a third time when the tireless
Sandy Edmond got ahold of the ball and went on a catch-me-if-you-can run down the right flank. Unfortunately for the visitors, too many of the defenders went to close the American winger down as time was running out, and a clever pass to the middle saw Rotteveel burst past Gerald Fretz to claim the hat-trick.
