SassoTeam 1 - 4 Ballack M (379478236)

1531 fans braved the pouring rain at Sassoeiros Stadium. Lucretiu Gheorghe was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Alain Oppilliart and Jani Melamies. SassoTeam decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. Lineup: Tempo - Lemos, Cortez, Azevedo, Raposo - Pires, Moreira Freitas, Piorro, Lopes Duarte - Martins Magalhães, Lourenço.

Ballack M tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Fykse - Rácz, Dzieciątkowski - Laze, Cartoccio, Verwoert, Ortíz, Tranchard - Dinkelacker, Aysan, Ciceri.

Ballack M seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. R. Cortez behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 2 minutes as he gave the ball away to J. Dinkelacker. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like I. Pires. Down the middle came J. Tranchard, making a fantastic play that nearly had Ballack M take the lead after 13 minutes, but G. Tempo preserved the tie. 0 - 1 was the score with 29 minutes played, after R. Laze cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for Ballack M. S. Aysan left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 30 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. A. De Pestel was the replacement. After 30 minutes, Ballack M's A. De Pestel burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 2. After this, you could see that the players of Ballack M were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. The coach of Ballack M was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 35 minutes, A. Pietiläinen came on for A. Cartoccio. The Ballack M captaincy was handed to A. Pietiläinen. G. Tempo got a fingertip on B. Ortíz's shot from the left 36 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. A quick counter attack by SassoTeam forced the opponent's defender to give away a freekick. D. Azevedo was allowed to take it quickly by the referee, much to the dismay of the goalkeeper who wasn't prepared. 1 - 2! 1 - 2 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Ballack M, who controlled the ball 85 percent of the time.

After 50 minutes, SassoTeam switched D. Azevedo with F. Foguete, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. F. Foguete became the new SassoTeam captain. As the game started to slip away for SassoTeam, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. 59 minutes into the game, Ballack M worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. The home crowd cheered when, after 77 minutes, P. Ciceri's charge up the middle resulted in the keeper making one of his best saves of the day. A scuffle developed as players from both sides clashed following a tussle in the centre of the field 78 minutes into the match. After regaining order and consulting his linesman, the referee called SassoTeam's I. Pires to one side and produced a red card for the player. A well placed corner kick from K. Verwoert was followed by J. Dinkelacker's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for Ballack M, the score now 1 - 3. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from A. De Pestel after 84 minutes, and prevented Ballack M from going up another goal. The visitors' K. Verwoert took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 85 minutes into the match. 1 - 4 for Ballack M. Ballack M claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 81 percent.

The most dominating SassoTeam player was without a doubt G. Tempo. S. Piorro on the other hand, had a terrible day. A. De Pestel performed admirably for Ballack M. On the other hand, A. Dzieciątkowski's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 4.