Kaartfanaat 3 - 1 Calisante (374638950)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 56855 had shown up at Kaartfanaat op straat for the match. Angelino Lello was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ioan Georgescu and Tódor Harkai. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Kaartfanaat. Lineup: Welman - Boekhoorn, Beudeker, Dogger - Farruggia, Modderman, Aercke, Tafur, Polak - Zullinger, Pinares.

Calisante had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Starters: Kwan Sun - Ius, Truman, Harbiye - Thycosen, Durruti, Haga, Labarca, Jansson - Ablanedo, Mckinnon.

It was an obvious ambition of Calisante to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. G. Dogger was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by T. Farruggia, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. The guests almost went up by a goal after 8 minutes when J. Ablanedo came through and shot from the right. The ball bounced harmlessly off the post, though. There was concern in the stands when, at the 22 minute mark, Kaartfanaat's T. Farruggia hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. F. Boekhoorn caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 32 minutes. This gave Kaartfanaat the 1 - 0 lead. After 33 minutes, E. Thycosen sent the corner kick right to R. Truman who headed it sharply past the keeper. 1 - 1! Kaartfanaat took the lead after 36 minutes as a result of E. Tafur's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 2 - 1. Coming through the middle J. Ablanedo almost scored the equaliser for Calisante after 39 minutes, but H. Welman made an excellent save, tipping the awkwardly curled shot past the post. 2 - 1 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Kaartfanaat, who controlled the ball 59 percent of the time.

It was obvious that Calisante had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. An equalising goal seemed certain after 59 minutes when E. Thycosen attacked down the left wing, but H. Welman just managed to make a save to keep the ball out of the net. Kaartfanaat's G. Zullinger increased the lead to 3 - 1, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 63 minutes. By now, the players in Kaartfanaat felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Calisante's R. Truman was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 65 minutes. O. Galun was given a chance to change things around. Calisante had a fair chance to reply after 66 minutes due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end S. Labarca was slow to keep up with the play and was unable to make it into the penalty box to apply a finish. After 71 minutes, Calisante switched D. Jansson with M. MacDaniell, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. After 74 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by J. Pinares might have resulted in another goal for Kaartfanaat. However, G. Kwan Sun made a spectacular save. G. Zullinger could have put Kaartfanaat up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 75 minutes. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Kaartfanaat coach let K. Mračna replace J. Polak after 80 minutes. Kaartfanaat had most of the ball, with 63 percent of possession.

Kaartfanaat's best player was J. Pinares. On the other hand, K. Mračna's play was disheartening. Calisante's top performer was clearly F. Haga. E. Thycosen on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 1.