HoulisHeroes 0 - 2 Brabant (202172446)

The crowd of 18928 turning up at The Houlidrome today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Lars Tranfeldt was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Benjamín Hrubizna and Osman Kargı. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for HoulisHeroes. Starters: James - Mihaylov, Meirov, Mizrachi, Vacari - Rogalski, Bausa, Germi, Rupeikis, Canadas - Peacock.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Brabant. The following players had been chosen: Szubanski - Stanton, Whitney, Seiffert - Lolohea, Tyrjälä, Akse, Askgaard, Slimani - Boele, Bazzani.

It was an obvious ambition of Brabant to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. F. Vacari behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 3 minutes as he gave the ball away to M. Lolohea. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. A. Slimani of Brabant was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. The guests took the lead 7 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in M. Lolohea scoring to make it 0 - 1. After 11 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave R. Akse a chance to increase the lead for Brabant, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 2. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Brabant lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. After the ball was lifted in from the left, M. Lolohea was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 32 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Brabant, with 52 percent of the ball.

It was a bad day for the usually speedy H. Boele. The mud seemed to slow him down. 71 minutes into the game, Brabant worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. Brabant's I. Bazzani was shown a yellow card after 72 minutes for slicing down an opponent. After the ball was lifted in from the left, H. Boele was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 75 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. Brabant had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

I. Rupeikis performed admirably for HoulisHeroes. However, W. Rogalski made a disastrous appearance. Brabant's top performer was clearly R. Akse. A. Slimani turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 2.