Cocoa 0 - 3 Galapagos (378744945)

It had rained all day, but 60000 hardy fans still made it out to "Ruggero Regalia"-"La Cocotera". Tyler Laver was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Helmut Heinsbroek and Ronan Doenselmann. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Cocoa. Lineup: Domingorena - Párraga, Espósito, Campi - Ocaña Zahler, Carratalá, Gottardi, Pérez, Iachetti - Furchi, Yehudai.

Galapagos started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Crosia - Rodrigues, Konieczek, Demontaño - Vâlceanu, Van Craen, Bibov, Manapov, Palagi - Reggiani, Blanken.

Galapagos saw most attack opportunities on the wings. C. Campi, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass. The referee showed Cocoa's D. Ocaña Zahler the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Galapagos, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. With 30 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. J. Rodrigues put the ball away for 0 - 1. As the game started to slip away for Cocoa, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. H. Blanken was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. Thighs bulging, G. Van Craen charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from G. Van Craen after 43 minutes, and prevented Galapagos from going up another goal. Galapagos's E. Demontaño got himself booked for a foul. O. Espósito's knee will be throbbing for days, but thankfully for Cocoa, he bravely continued in the match. 0 - 1 was the halftime score. Galapagos claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

Galapagos increased their lead after 48 minutes when J. Rodrigues broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 2, much to the home crowd's dismay. The Cocoa 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 Cocoa manager used a brief break in play after 49 minutes to give the players new directives. J. Manapov wanted to play on, but the Galapagos coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 49 minutes into the game by S. Krugkoppel. After 71 minutes, Cocoa's M. Iachetti fell awkwardly, but was determined to stay in the match. That's the spirit! With 82 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed H. Blanken of Galapagos to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 3. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Galapagos coach let F. Wojtan replace P. Palagi after 89 minutes. The Galapagos players could smell victory in the air. G. Vâlceanu wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for N. Nayanov after 89 minutes. Possession in this half belonged to Galapagos, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Cocoa's top performer was clearly E. Párraga. On the other hand, C. Campi's play was disheartening. Galapagos's best player was G. Van Craen. N. Nayanov on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 3.