Clear skies welcomed the 12000 spectators who had made their way to
Grand Hall of Heroes.
Liran Mandel was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Wilhelm Bergmann and
Zeger Clerx.
A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Heroes.
The following players had been chosen: Chernikov - Seglenieks, Sapega, Ciekals - Laiviņš, Kulak, Georgiev, Zekin, Markov - Nazarenko, Reschl.
Grobiņa tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination.
Starters: Gruznov - Bukhantsev, Baumanis, Zvārgulis, Veiss - Kaža, Virza, Kalējs, Ūlands - Bilijs, Bigus.
Heroes tried to focus their attacks down the middle.
G. Georgiev gave Heroes the lead as he successfully challenged the guests' central defenders, then slotted the ball into the bottom corner, giving the keeper no chance. 1 - 0
Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Heroes, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity.
Heroes solidified their lead at the 13 minute mark, as
R. Seglenieks dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0.
Heroes players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead.
R. Ciekals had a fantastic opportunity to put Heroes up another goal 17 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar.
A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Heroes's
G. Reschl increasing the lead to 3 - 0.
At this point, it was obvious that the players of Heroes lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented.
Heroes's
R. Ciekals saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 35 minutes.
3 - 0 was the halftime score.
Heroes claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 78 percent.
Cheers filled the stadium as
D. Kulak broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 4 - 0 to Heroes.
After 57 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and
G. Reschl gave the Heroes supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 5 - 0.
E. Baumanis's lack of experience almost gave Heroes a goal after 65 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms.
Things were deteriorating for the away team as Heroes scored another to make it 6 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for
D. Kulak after 71 minutes.
74 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as
G. Reschl broke through, making the score 7 - 0 for Heroes.
That was his third goal of the match - a hat trick for
G. Reschl.
Heroes's
R. Seglenieks refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 82 minutes.
Heroes had most of the ball, with 83 percent of possession.
Heroes's best player was
I. Nazarenko.
A. Chernikov turned in a dismal performance, however.
Most important Grobiņa player was
L. Bilijs.
On the other hand,
A. Gruznov's play was disheartening.
The match ends 7 - 0.