Polpetta 0 - 3 Kursaal (381662682)

It had rained all day, but 44197 hardy fans still made it out to Polpetta's Stadium. Ad Wellock was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Randy Kuizinga and Bertus de Bever. Polpetta had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Starters: Eliasyan - Aguiar, Wäger, Chapoñán, Dziduch - Frascarelli, Schram, Haiminen, Paolucci - Dadashi, Paz.

Kursaal decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. The following players took the field: Matejík - Godoy, Kemna - Bonnink, Edens, Schickel, Macheritsas, Grisez - Ibn-Latif, Oberhuber, Houli.

The strategy for Polpetta was to use their ability to press. Kursaal were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. F. Houli had a good opportunity to give Kursaal the lead as he charged down the right and struck the ball towards the top corner, but the home team's goalkeeper made the save. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like P. Haiminen. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Kursaal, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Kursaal's H. Grisez after 29 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. Kursaal's D. Oberhuber was shown a yellow card after 33 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Polpetta's G. Paolucci had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 36 minutes having been played. E. Langher was the replacement. H. Dziduch behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 38 minutes as he gave the ball away to M. Bonnink. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Kursaal had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. J. Edens of Kursaal took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 41 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 2. By now, the players in Kursaal felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. The corner kick from J. Edens was powerfully met by the head of H. Grisez to make the score 0 - 3. 0 - 3 was the halftime score. Kursaal enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 66 percent of possession.

Polpetta's A. Paz was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 63 minutes. It was obvious that Kursaal had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Kursaal's D. Oberhuber made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 64 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. Against a lesser team, Kursaal could very well have succeeded with their smart indirect free kick routine after 65 minutes. A trio of passes took the ball all the way past the defenders, but by then the intended recipient was already blocked off and the keeper could make a leisurely save. At this time in the match, Polpetta were using their skill at pressing to successfully stifle the game. Kursaal claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 67 percent.

Polpetta's top performer was clearly V. Eliasyan. However, N. Dadashi made a disastrous appearance. I. Ibn-Latif performed admirably for Kursaal. J. Kemna turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 3.