Anlen 3 - 0 SMVP (366388421)

The crowd of 54745 turning up at Anlen Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Roger Høyer was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ottó Pósa and Laurent Ferreira. Anlen started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Velasco - Kūtnieks, Zelin, Zheleznyak - Kharlamov, Hulak, Urķis, Buhreiters, Freimanis - Davidson, Gorkun.

SMVP had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Starý - van Panhuis, Irsten, Trut - Maczkowski, Graça, Tyberghien, Destruel, Civa - Iske, De Bakker.

Anlen created a good opportunity to score 6 minutes into the match when P. Freimanis's hooked ball from the left created a scuffle in front of the goal, and the visitors' defenders had a hard time clearing the ball. After some beautiful movement down the left wing, L. Davidson scored for Anlen putting them ahead 1 - 0, after 20 minutes. Anlen put in a good effort on the right, but G. Kūtnieks saw his volley fly wide of the mark 23 minutes into the game. In a rapid move 27 minutes into the match, L. Davidson of Anlen lost his man and passed the ball to the unmarked A. Gorkun who easily hit it home to make it 2 - 0. Luckily the ref didn't see him taunting the opposing fans in celebration - naughty boy! SMVP's right side looked dangerous after 28 minutes, as C. De Bakker broke through. H. Velasco continued to stifle them, however, as he made the save look easy. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Anlen's A. Gorkun increasing the lead to 3 - 0. The players of Anlen now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. The teams went for the halftime break at 3 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to Anlen, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time.

The home side's R. Urķis came close to extending the lead 50 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but Z. Starý managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. P. Freimanis really should have scored when he was chosen by fate to confront a wide open goal following a great play by V. Kharlamov after a corner. The visitors got a chance to pulling one back after 66 minutes, due to a defensive blunder leaving F. Destruel completely unmarked. His strike was pathetic though, easy prey for the home side's keeper. 72 minutes in, Anlen's M. Hulak received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The player down was M. van Panhuis. The SMVP bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. With 75 minutes played, R. Urķis could have brought this one home for Anlen as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. É. Iske, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass. SMVP's M. van Panhuis was shown a yellow card after 82 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Anlen claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

The most dominating Anlen player was without a doubt L. Davidson. However, V. Kharlamov made a disastrous appearance. Most important SMVP player was M. Graça. D. Civa turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 0.