FC_Odessa 0 - 3 nezaales (364717678)

The 12000 spectators at Jusepe Odesse were in for an afternoon of sunshine. Rudy Le Vaseux was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Sergiy Godulyan and Toni Riquelme. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for FC_Odessa. The following players had been chosen: Jelgavnieks - Polievskiy, Soldāns, Dzelzkalejs, Ameriks - Klochev, Bergs, Navitski, Tarfimovich - Strods, Ventiņš.

nezaales had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Štāls - Prokopenko, Elin, Kamenistý - Treimanis, Rusanovskiy, Glukhikh, Mylnikov, Sārtzieds - Ziemiņš, Riipinen.

Going for long shots seemed to be the strategy in use by nezaales. nezaales's J. Treimanis could have put the guests one up after 3 minutes after chasing a through ball from the right, but O. Jelgavnieks was as fast as a snake, grabbing the ball from under his nose. FC_Odessa had a great opportunity to score following a counterattack after 4 minutes, but P. Polievskiy's shot from the left sailed high over the bar. FC_Odessa's G. Soldāns was shown a yellow card after 12 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 21 minutes into the game, nezaales seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to weak. nezaales had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 32 minutes in when V. Glukhikh came up alone against O. Jelgavnieks who managed a block. It was a hot and sunny day, and several players seemed worn out. Maybe this was why S. Tarfimovich found an unusual amount of space for his snappy footwork. It was obvious that the tactic of the day for nezaales was to go for long shots, but in order to score they have to do better than the shooting attempt from D. Sārtzieds after 36 minutes, which was a total failure. nezaales's A. Elin managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 41 minutes. 0 - 1. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by nezaales, with 65 percent of the ball.

A review of the gameplan helped nezaales get back to a solid organisation when the referee blew his whistle again. Some things can only be learned through experience, and E. Bergs should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting nezaales a goal with 54 minutes of the match played. After 64 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as nezaales found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to passable. Some fine movement on the left led to a nezaales goal after 68 minutes, making it 0 - 2. V. Glukhikh was noted down as the scorer. Confident in their lead, nezaales's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. FC_Odessa's P. Polievskiy got himself booked for a foul. 77 minutes into the game, nezaales seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a inadequate level of organisation. 81 minutes in, nezaales appeared unsure on how to play and their organisation was only weak. Some beautiful play by nezaales set up P. Riipinen in a good shooting position after 82 minutes, but O. Jelgavnieks made a great save on the low hard shot. The visitors' J. Treimanis took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 83 minutes into the match. 0 - 3 for nezaales. nezaales enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 73 percent of possession.

FC_Odessa's best player was L. Ventiņš. A. Strods was a disappointment, however. nezaales's top performer was clearly P. Riipinen. However, L. Ziemiņš made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 3.