Anatolia 6 - 0 Eagles (373352852)

Dark skies made the crowd of 33847 at Ottomans 1453 a little nervous, but the rain held off. Manfred von Wackerbarth was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Mircea Roman and Chen Gui-Fan. Anatolia decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. Starters: Carbonaro - Santiago, D'Amico, Géry, Olesk - Damjanović, Torres Toro, Vilar, Wästerdahl, Kotzbauer - van Kemenade.

Eagles tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Zillissen - Salmon, Kaptan, Aspenbratt - Taboas, Desnoués, Soygüven, Zaguła, Ayberk - Noyan, Alay.

Eagles tried to focus their attacks down the middle. Against a lesser team, Anatolia could very well have succeeded with their smart indirect free kick routine after 4 minutes. A trio of passes took the ball all the way past the defenders, but by then the intended recipient was already blocked off and the keeper could make a leisurely save. After a fine move down the middle R. van Kemenade nearly gave the home side a goal after 5 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. Anatolia broke through on the left 10 minutes into the game, with J. Wästerdahl firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. The referee showed Eagles's J. Salmon the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After 19 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Eagles found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to passable. After 22 minutes Anatolia's I. Vilar limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. Anatolia managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when J. Santiago cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Confident in their lead, Anatolia's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. With 36 minutes played, J. Santiago of Anatolia fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. A great save by keeper R. Zillissen after 37 minutes kept the visitors in the game after R. van Kemenade struck from the left with a real cannonball. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Anatolia claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 76 percent.

A review of the gameplan helped Eagles get back to a solid organisation when the referee blew his whistle again. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Anatolia scored another to make it 3 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for K. Olesk after 47 minutes. With 53 minutes played, Anatolia put themselves up 4 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to R. van Kemenade, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Anatolia to 5 - 0 as R. van Kemenade finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. Anatolia put themselves up 6 - 0 when A. Damjanović broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. 80 minutes into the game, Eagles had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to poor. After 83 minutes Eagles's S. Aspenbratt contracted a slight foot injury, but didn't want to leave the game. J. Wästerdahl unleashed a swerving effort from the right that the visitors' keeper did well to tip wide. Anatolia enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 80 percent of possession.

The most dominating Anatolia player was without a doubt I. Vilar. V. Carbonaro on the other hand, had a terrible day. Eagles's top performer was clearly S. Aspenbratt. R. Zillissen was a disappointment, however. The match ends 6 - 0.