Fudziole 1 - 6 Contownia (299618984)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 56038 at *Fugi*Arena* today. Timo Omaheimo was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jan Rothmann and Heine Vinther. Fudziole started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Puma - Dobosz, Lavandero, Köpke, Van Elslander - Danielewski, Eliyav, Garip, Niedziałek, Jobin - Siddi.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Contownia. They fielded: Allinckx - Cychowski, Strandbeck, Bannink - Mansour, Schilder, Zienkiewicz, Dorszewski, Roeting - Rasinen, Strojnowski.

Fudziole clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Contownia's A. Zienkiewicz managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 4 minutes. 0 - 1. Fudziole had to make a substitution after 7 minutes. R. Lavandero limped off the field and was replaced by G. Rosés. A. Mansour received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 10 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 2. The Contownia fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. The Contownia free kick 27 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of S. Rasinen, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 0 - 3! Contownia increased their lead after 30 minutes when A. Zienkiewicz broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 4, much to the home crowd's dismay. 32 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 5 as S. Rasinen finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. The players of Contownia now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. 0 - 5 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Contownia, with 65 percent of the ball.

The corner kick from E. Eliyav was powerfully met by the head of C. Jobin to make the score 1 - 5. J. Cychowski could have put his team up another goal 66 minutes into the game, after a rush down the left, but his closing shot hit the post. After 71 minutes, Contownia's S. Rasinen burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 6. This third goal completed a hattrick for S. Rasinen. A. Mansour of Contownia received a yellow card after 74 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. The Fudziole coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the Fudziole manager used a brief break in play after 80 minutes to give the players new directives. Fudziole's E. Eliyav had a nice free kick routine after 81 minutes that was very close to paying off, had it not been for a dramatic save by the visitors' keeper. After 85 minutes, Fudziole switched B. Van Elslander with V. Maestre León, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. Contownia claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 65 percent.

B. Siddi performed admirably for Fudziole. G. Rosés on the other hand, had a terrible day. Contownia's top performer was clearly M. Strojnowski. J. Bannink was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 6.