Donabate 2 - 3 Grilled
The clouds were hanging menacingly over the stadium today. Lineup:
Buccheri -
Leahy,
小铭 (Xiaoming),
Hvidtfeldt,
Lande,
Filiovas -
ó Briain,
Henderson,
Galvin -
Morrigan,
Magallanes.
Starters:
Germanakos -
Panigrahi,
Webb -
Baena,
Mohammad Harun,
Keng Chuan,
Parvathaneni,
Trindade -
Ze Han,
Xin Seng,
Chitre.
Fortuna Donabate trundled out to the pitch in a 5-3-2 formation. The visitors, Grilled Birds, chose to start the game with a 2-5-3 lineup. Grilled used their mythical (17) ability to concentrate their attacks in the middle of the field. 6 minutes had elapsed when a great chance for Donabate to take the lead after a good ball from the right found
Gavin Henderson alone with the keeper, but he chipped it to the wrong side of the post. Donabate's
Lorenzo Magallanes was shown a yellow card after 10 minutes for slicing down an opponent.
Down the middle came
Bilal Mohammad Harun, making a fantastic play that nearly saw Grilled take the lead after 11 minutes, but
Luca Buccheri preserved the tie.
Kalki Parvathaneni's well-known speed was on display as he darted past his defender and sent a beautiful pass through the defender’s legs to
Gandhik Chitre who scored the 0 - 1 goal. The crowd was on its feet at the 37 minute mark, as Donabate's
Gavin Henderson found himself all alone in front of the goal after a dash up the left side. He calmly put away the 1 - 1 equalizer. Halftime score was 1 - 1. Well, look at this! Cardi B is on the Enormotron in naught but giant sunglasses, red tassles, and a Millinocket Moose tank top. I've not seen anything like it before. 46 minutes into the match, the referee signaled for a Grilled substitution.
Lim An Keng came on for
Kalki Parvathaneni. Grilled took the lead 58 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle.
Aw Keng Chuan was the scorer. An accurate cross from Grilled's
Enrique Baena was met with a wonderful off-balance header from
Moey Xin Seng, hitting the inside base of the post before curling up into the back of the net like a dog in front of a fire for 1 - 3. It was obvious that Grilled had instructions to attack in the middle when they directed a break on the wing into the center of the park. By working their way through the middle, Donabate refused to be intimidated – their efforts finally led to
Nicki Hvidtfeldt managing to slip the ball past the keeper to make the score 2 - 3.
Luca Buccheri kept the home side in the game with a magnificent save when
Bhavya Panigrahi delivered an almost perfect free kick to the far post. As the 75 minute mark approached, the Grilled manager decided it was time for a substitution.
Moey Xin Seng reluctantly made way for
Teo Chuan Yong. With the clock showing 75 minutes, the fourth official held up the substitution board.
Bilal Mohammad Harun looked to see that it was his number in red, so he made his way over to the sideline and swapped out for
Hwang Teck Fu, though he would have liked to continue. As the match nears its end, the referee deemed it appropriate to add 1 minutes as stoppage time. The match ends 2 - 3. Grilled set the tempo, maintaining 53 percent of possession.
Donabate's top performer was clearly
Gavin Henderson. I can't remember
Teisutis Filiovas ever having a worse night than he just had. The most outstanding Grilled player was without a doubt
Chan Ze Han. Even six year old fans were wincing at the poor play by
Bhavya Panigrahi today.