Pura Pleasure
Paullin Package
Dani Spirig made his Grilled debut days after Langeland, and was marginally more effective as Grilled prevailed 5-2 at the El Gran Espiritu in Costa Rica. Their opponents were pura_vida, currently lying second in the Primera División on goal difference, with a massive winner-takes-all showdown with championship rivals Revolucion Cubana 1 looming.
Conserving themselves, pura_vida paraded a 4-5-1 lineup, but both sides chose direct passing as their main tactic for the day, leading to fast-paced, combative play.
Ulf Hjortlind, no longer a first-team choice, kept in shape by toying with pura's coach-cum-defender Ignacio Sánchez Sanz. Sanz's smarts counted for nothing as Hjortlind broke past him and opened the scoring.
Grilled's defence was lightweight too, as lone forward Totte Uddborn found out as he dispatched
Weng Seng-Huat with an elementary fake. Bao-Tam should really have stopped Uddborn's slow lob, but appeared to lose his balance going backwards and the ball dropped unopposed into goal. Sanz was totally out of his depth against far younger professionals, and gave away the second as Paullin outsped him to a backpass and beat homegrown Alberto Ortegón in goal. Donald Kas nearly repeated the mistake later in the half, but this time
Joe Stern was called offside. Siu-Yue had a go too, hitting the woodwork.
pura_vida got a second wind as they returned recharged by the fifteen-minute rest, and Chilean fullback Juan Luis Manguyague levitated high above Grilled's defenders to equalise from a long corner. They almost took the lead next though Kas, who made his own way through a sea of Grilled players and shot only a few feet wide. The fightback faltered eventually, and ended with
Joe Stern exhibiting outstanding pace as he accelerated past Danish defender Luis Wechslberger and banged in Grilled's third.
The remainder of the match saw Grilled close off the game, with
Au-Yong Siu-Yue outthinking pura_vida's inexperienced midfield and adding a cool fourth for good measure. Grilled then absorbed a few abortive pura_vida attacks, breaking free on the left through steadily-improving Bulgarian midfielder
Milen Kolesov. Noting the overpopulated penalty area, Kolesov pulled his center way back to Paullin, who shot on sight to make it five for Grilled. All this while, Dani stayed back in deference to team orders, and showed good judgement in bringing Uddborn down early on a dangerous pura_vida build-up to neutralise his threat, receiving just an inconsequential yellow card.
