Banditos 2 - 5 hunze (280457994)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 40500 to The Banditos Palace. Dino van der Valk was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Hélder Candeias and Raul Sacramento. Banditos had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. They fielded: Chaftar - Langhout, Benjumea, Jeker, de Vogt - Kamlag, Smit, De Vleeshauwer, Haugen, Moreira - Vliegenthart.

A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for hunze. Lineup: Khoury - Lavas, Moreno, Naumann - Rath-Friis, Bruckmeier, Rovetta, Nieberle - Campagne, Ringen, Starý.

The home side put themselves ahead 1 - 0 after 2 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from M. Smit, who scored with a stunning volley following a cross from the right wing. I. Benjumea got left behind when hunze's A. Ringen made a sudden run forward after 29 minutes, finishing off with a neat strike. 1 - 1! A. Ringen had a good opportunity to give hunze the lead as he charged down the right and struck the ball towards the top corner, but the home team's goalkeeper made the save. G. de Vogt's technique was perfect on this sunny day and led to some breathtaking tricks that bamboozled the defence. hunze took the lead 42 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. A. Ringen was the scorer. It was 1 - 2 at the break. Neither team was controlling the possession at this point in the match, with the stats showing a 50:50 split.

47 minutes into the match, Banditos's M. Smit maneuvered his way around the opposition on the left flank, delighting the crowd with his twists and turns. The effort paid off as the ball found the back of the net, evening the score at 2 - 2. 2 - 3 was the score with 51 minutes played, after L. Bruckmeier cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for hunze. With 71 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed O. Starý of hunze to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 2 - 4. A. Ringen wasn't much help defensively. His energy-consuming forward runs proved quite costly in the oppressive heat. After 76 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for A. Ringen who increased hunze's lead to 2 - 5. By then A. Ringen had scored three goals - a hat trick! At this point, it was obvious that the players of hunze lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Neither team were able to dominate possession this half.

M. Haugen performed admirably for Banditos. However, B. Chaftar made a disastrous appearance. hunze's top performer was clearly A. Ringen. S. Khoury turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 5.