Olympique 1 - 5 Taikon (378117325)

The crowd of 2577 turning up at Cham Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Dominik Filipiec was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Daryadi Katehokang and Julio Herzl. Olympique tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. They fielded: Sossenheim - Urbansson, Kanzari - Guichelaar, Shavarshyan, Laporte, Maine, Iványi - Hendrikx, Clémente, Caumont.

Taikon decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Hermansson - Hagelholt, Sunesson, Oskarsson - Hansson, Bergsten, Nordsten, Hörnmar, Skoging - Tullquist, Möllerquist.

S. Maine seemed highly inexperienced when, after 11 minutes, he was caught dilly-dallying with the ball and allowed U. Nordsten to intercept and strike home the goal for Taikon to make the score 0 - 1. M. Hansson received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 12 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 2. The Taikon fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. The home crowd was not impressed when P. Hagelholt came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 23 minutes. Taikon were now up 0 - 3. The players of Taikon now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. S. Maine did not have a good day today, often losing his footing on the muddy pitch. A marvellous Olympique effort on the right-hand side resulted in a goal after 31 minutes by N. Clémente, making the score 1 - 3. 1 - 3 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Taikon, with 69 percent of the ball.

The referee signalled a penalty 55 minutes into the game following an offence which looked like it was outside the box. M. Hansson knocked it home to make the score 1 - 4. M. Hansson didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. After 63 minutes, Taikon's F. Oskarsson burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 5. Taikon came close to extending their lead as U. Skoging delivered a low effort on goal from the right after 64 minutes, but the angle was too narrow and the shot went harmlessly into the side netting. C. Möllerquist was, after 70 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors' lead with a well placed diving header after the ball had looped into the centre, but the home side's keeper D. Sossenheim made the save. The referee showed Olympique's K. Shavarshyan the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A loud groan was heard from the fans of Taikon, as E. Tullquist left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. A. Jacobsson took his place on the field. Taikon claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 70 percent.

Olympique's best player was G. Guichelaar. D. Sossenheim turned in a dismal performance, however. U. Nordsten performed admirably for Taikon. P. Hermansson on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 5.