SPIRIT 2 - 4 Rabovanette (383220910)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 6440 had shown up at Central Park for the match. Thomas Giry was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Maksym Kassman and Carlos Gotarda. A 4-3-3 alignment was the formation of choice for SPIRIT. The following players took the field: Tavares - Beulich, Bathers, Labayen, Blanch - León Mendoza, Turró, Baillo - Belloso, Clérigues, Cardell.

Rabovanette tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: Singh - Thùy, Rothblom, Maturana, Grotius - Kraśkiewicz, Macía, Roisdorf, Štěrba - Pierattelli, Sunesson.

It was obvious that Rabovanette were using their pressing skill as their primary tactic. Rabovanette pressed their opponents, causing the game to be a bit of a stalemate at times. Rabovanette's M. Macía gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead after 20 minutes with a superb strike from the right. Due to some great work on the right wing SPIRIT's J. Baillo was able to even the score after 36 minutes to make the score 1 - 1. L. Thùy hit the corner kick straight to the keeper, but it was mishandled, giving Rabovanette's A. Pierattelli an easy chance to knock it in for 1 - 2. The home crowd was not impressed when A. Pierattelli came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 38 minutes. Rabovanette were now up 1 - 3. 1 - 3 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Rabovanette, who controlled the ball 59 percent of the time.

Some fine movement on the left led to a Rabovanette goal after 53 minutes, making it 1 - 4. A. Pierattelli was noted down as the scorer. That made three goals for A. Pierattelli and he was marked down for the hat trick. By now, the players in Rabovanette felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Rabovanette's ability to press all over the field frequently paid dividends. SPIRIT's J. Baillo got himself booked for a foul. The visitors nearly scored again after 82 minutes, but a superb save by J. Tavares kept F. Kraśkiewicz's free kick out of the net. SPIRIT were awarded a penalty 84 minutes into the match and P. Clérigues fired the ball into the net to make the score 2 - 4. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Rabovanette, with 56 percent of the ball.

Most important SPIRIT player was C. Belloso. On the other hand, J. Tavares's play was disheartening. The most dominating Rabovanette player was without a doubt A. Pierattelli. However, D. Singh made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 4.