mikeunited 5 - 4 Begonia (171978742)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 62250 at haviknest today. Jacob Dekoning was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Thibault Duverneuil and Guido Quiroz. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for mikeunited. The following players took the field: Dogger - Andersen, Gomez, Trapaga - Brinkmann, Beringen, Preiner, Geysen, Cyr - Tebak, van Aart.

Begonia had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: van der Waart - Drakblad, Pastoors, Sakup - van Poppel, Männi, Walvisch, Waugh, Askari - Marotte, Lieverse.

mikeunited seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Begonia took the lead 8 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. R. Marotte was the scorer. B. Walvisch received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 19 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 2. The Begonia fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. After 20 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed R. Marotte to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 3. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Begonia lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. A marvellous mikeunited effort on the right-hand side resulted in a goal after 25 minutes by S. Tebak, making the score 1 - 3. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 3. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Begonia, with 52 percent of the ball.

The corner kick from J. Drakblad was powerfully met by the head of C. Waugh to make the score 1 - 4. The home crowd was given a certain amount of consolation when S. Tebak scored after a brilliant midfield combination through the centre, reducing the lead to 2 - 4. The home team's supporters got excited again when J. Gomez broke through the visitors' central defence and caught their keeper off guard, making it 3 - 4. E. Beringen's lack of experience almost gave Begonia a goal after 71 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms. mikeunited put pressure on the visitors' central defence 76 minutes into the game, but J. Gomez couldn't find an opening. The referee showed Begonia's R. Marotte the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. K. Andersen was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so mikeunited's Q. DAlessandro had to come off the bench. After 81 minutes of play, S. Tebak evened things up for mikeunited with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 4 - 4. This third goal completed a hattrick for S. Tebak. 88 minutes into the match and the home team took a 5 - 4 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for mikeunited was B. van Aart. Begonia enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 51 percent of possession.

Most important mikeunited player was B. van Aart. Q. DAlessandro on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Begonia player was C. Waugh. B. Sakup was a disappointment, however. The match ends 5 - 4.