Cubana 5 - 2 Santos (379232402)

The crowd of 1344 turning up at Gebettempel Einsiedeln today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Mirko Lumini was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Mitko Bozhinov and Alberts Auzins. The match took place on neutral ground. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Cubana. Starters: Buschauer - Mayer-Berg, Mühlhaus, Graner, Pflugshaupt - Masel, Sarrats, Lacaze, Le Borgne, Lesi - Haslauer.

Santos started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Brunelli - Mérida, Groll, Benedetti - Randegger, Harck, Boysen, Nonato, Castropol - Štejnar, Vezmar.

Cubana were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Santos's L. Benedetti after 12 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. With the crowd on their feet chanting wildly, some great moves down the right hand side after 13 minutes gave Cubana a wonderful opportunity to level the score, and E. Mayer-Berg stepped up to the challenge. 1 - 1 After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, H. Lesi got himself booked. The manager of Cubana was not happy. Cubana were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. The home side put themselves ahead 2 - 1 after 17 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from R. Haslauer, who scored with a stunning volley following a cross from the right wing. After 19 minutes, R. Haslauer put Cubana ahead 3 - 1 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. R. Haslauer spent most of the time in a heap on the ground today, his normally rapid movement hindered by the slippery pitch. Cubana put themselves up 4 - 1 when O. Graner broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. It was 4 - 1 at the break. Cubana claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

Cubana had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. E. Mayer-Berg could have put Cubana up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 49 minutes. The visitors replied 59 minutes into the game, reducing the home side's lead to 4 - 2, as C. Mérida dashed up the middle, easily lobbing the ball over the home team's keeper. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Santos's C. Mérida was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 60 minutes. A. Berg was given a chance to change things around. As the match clock hit 60 minutes, Cubana regrouped to try and keep their initiative in the game. E. Mayer-Berg high-fived H. Masel as they swapped positions on the team. Cubana's O. Graner was shown a yellow card after 67 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A. Berg's knee will be throbbing for days, but thankfully for Santos, he bravely continued in the match. The referee showed Santos's L. Benedetti the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. P. Le Borgne left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 70 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. T. Cousin was the replacement. T. Pflugshaupt was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Cubana's V. Handschin had to come off the bench. After 71 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and R. Haslauer gave the Cubana supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 5 - 2. By then R. Haslauer had scored three goals - a hat trick! With 74 minutes played, T. Cousin could have brought this one home for Cubana as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Cubana coach let A. Kolb replace H. Masel after 89 minutes. Cubana had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Cubana's best player was T. Cousin. However, A. Kolb made a disastrous appearance. Most important Santos player was A. Castropol. L. Randegger was a disappointment, however. The match ends 5 - 2.