Christmas Cheer
Leer Fade
Grilled advanced to the finals of the Insane Hard World Cup V after going behind to German Division Five club Flache Leer. The semi-final being held in Guatemala didn't help attendance, but a few thousand faithful still turned up.
Flache had advanced on the back of a devastating 5-0 victory over Norway's arubaajax despite fielding a defensive 5-4-1, and had also comprehensively schooled Argentina's Morozevich FC Morozevich FC 7-3 before that. Now sporting an adventurous 3-5-2, they always looked the more likely to score in the opening exchanges, and veteran Thai player-coach Pongthep Khamsing would have done so in the fifth minute had a lesser goalkeeper than Valdir been doing the job for Grilled.
Even Valdir was helpless seventeen minutes on, as young star winger Cornelius Bozsik lived up to his S$3.2 million transfer fee by wrongfooting
Nawaz Talib on the right side after the Pakistani defender gave him just a foot of space. Cutting fearlessly right into the box, Bozsik looked up and spotted Allersmeier in a good position, and the hat-trick hero against Morozevich did enough to make the ball cross the line.
Grilled were at sixes and sevens as they struggled to keep up with the confident play of Flache, and the normally composed Branbilla was harried into a clumsy recovery tackle on Kräuter after getting caught in possession. That was a yellow for the Swiss midfielder, and it could have been worse as the quickly taken free-kick was pinged upfield and sniped towards goal by Pawel Radosz. Valdir could possibly have kept it out, but Sid took no chances and hammered it out for a corner.
Flache would lose their Finnish rightback Ville Autiokari after a recurring knee injury acted up, and while his replacement Carl-Philipp Deubler didn't really put a foot wrong, the substitution appeared to disrupt Flache's rhythm. Grilled took full advantage before they could get going again, as Rotteveel slid the equaliser through Flache's goalie Apolo Yassuda unopposed as the Flache backline appealed unsuccessfully for offside.
Yassuda, who like Valdir is Brazilian, was still in good enough spirits to exchange a few words with his more famous countryman at half time, but he lost his cool after his defence let him down again six minutes into the second half.
Quah Han Kok wasn't picked up as he made his way along the sidelines, and neither was MacKinnon when he received the cross, though to be fair the angle was very tight. Not nearly tight enough, though, as the Scotsman fired it straight and true.
Now chasing the game, Flache regained their early game form and probed continually at Grilled's defences. Romanian winger David Ivan struck panic into the Grilled ranks when he went on a classic run past four Grilled men, and only dogged persistance by
Quah Han Kok managed to head off the danger eventually. Valdir would be tested once more by Peter Brandstätter, who unleashed a tremendous attempt in the 81st minute, and again his reflexes were up to it.
Ciro Penati, who has grown in stature after his promotion to the fringes of the Grilled first team, then crowned a mature performance with a calm exchange of passes with Subri, who had a quiet day. The Malaysian forward unselfishly allowed Penati to take the shot when he could have turned and went for it himself, and wasn't disappointed as the 20 year-old Italian bent the ball out of Yassuda's reach to put Grilled's win beyond doubt.
