Energising Workout
Lorenz Leads
Norge Division Three side Battery arrayed a tight 5-4-1 formation against Grilled's young attacking midfielders, their man-marking punctuated with piercing counters. Kek-Tjiang was often left holding the baby as Rottman and Paullin were caught upfront and were little inclined to backtrack.
Battery sounded their first warning in the third minute when Karsten Krogsrud, fresh out of their youth school, was not picked up by any defender as he jogged wide of the penalty area. Good vision from central midfielder Robert Fredriksson saw the ball get to Krogsrud as belated offside appeals from Seng-Huat were waved aside. Huel-sheng was in a bad position to narrow the angles as the seventeen year old advanced unopposed, then flipped a lobbed shot at the far post when he was almost sure of scoring on a simple tap past the goalie. The high ball dropped over the crossbar, much to his disappointment.
The next chance was Grilled's, as
Joe Stern kicked in a low, hard corner which Rottman expertly turned behind for Dewilde. The Belgian defender cracked a beauty which rocked the left upright. Intermittent rain evolved into a full-blown storm during the first half, which caused Stern much grief as he ended on his face not once but twice. Battery held Grilled back with side-to-side passing, as Shen marred an otherwise excellent performance when he let a routine pass thread through to Gunson on the right. The teenaged Australian centre-back barely connected with the pass at speed as the ball span out at the corner flag, saving Shen from recrimination.
The light blues of Battery again gave green-clad Grilled the run-around in the second half, this time as the ball was moved from left to right rapidly and knocked on by Fredriksson for the muscular Ole Havlykke to barrel past Tuan-Mu, who couldn't keep his feet in the treacherous conditions. Havlykke's momentum made him shoot while off-stride though, and his last touch wafted clear of goal.
Kek-Tjiang at this time was seen to forcibly pull his errant counterparts towards the back, to no avail as cover for the defence went missing again in the 56th minute. Rottman was the culprit this time, as he let a pass go unchallenged for Krogsrud to start a move down the middle that left Henrik Tufte with only Huel-sheng to get past. The wily 33 year-old went down with his legs to trap the ball under the body, even as the two thousand fans in the Blue Dream arena were up in arms as Tufte went rolling to the turf. No foul, signalled the referee.
Milen Kolesov's tireless running then got thrust into the spotlight as he faced down Sten Berge, who didn't commit to a tackle for Kolesov to make good time towards the Battery goal. A quick turn to the outside won Kolesov enough space to lash a wicked cross which the just-arrived Paullin drove home for the win.
