Valiants 2 - 3 Monrawell (384262296)

Clear skies welcomed the 67927 spectators who had made their way to Fail Park. Rainer Virgilio was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Guriy Serebrov and Marlo Linggi. Valiants tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Sáenz Barrio - Harto, Micklehose, Coissoró - Henrique, MacCririe, Skrl, Dein-Butt - Casters, Landvoogd, Dervišagić.

Monrawell started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Enyego - Pitaval, Dati, Bocheński, Denks - Smith, Spittel, MacCartney, Szkop - Farkas, Garcia.

Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Monrawell. Monrawell were great at switching from defence to attack, and after 15 minutes, A. Dati swept through the middle on a counterattack, making the score 0 - 1. Valiants's M. Harto made a successful breakthrough on the left after 21 minutes and should have levelled the score, but instead he clipped it over the bar. M. Micklehose sailed high above the opponents as he headed in a corner kick from M. Harto after 24 minutes of play, making the score 1 - 1. Valiants took the lead after 29 minutes as a result of A. Coissoró's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 2 - 1. The referee showed Monrawell's A. Dati the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After 34 minutes Monrawell tried to exploit their counterattacking skills, unfortunately, A. Spittel's shot sailed wide after his break down the right. After 35 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by K. Landvoogd might have resulted in another goal for Valiants. However, V. Enyego made a spectacular save. The home team will be cursing Q. Pitaval for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem. The match was level at 2 - 2 after 36 minutes. 2 - 2 was the halftime score. Valiants enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

Valiants had a good opportunity to take the lead as B. MacCririe came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of V. Enyego. K. Casters of Valiants was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. After 59 minutes, Monrawell put themselves up 2 - 3, as M. Garcia finished off a strike from the left with a real cannonball of a shot. The Monrawell players could smell victory in the air. M. Garcia wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for Y. Amikam after 65 minutes. After 65 minutes, the Monrawell players received new instructions from their manager on how to keep in control of the game. M. Farkas left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 65 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. Y. Duran was the replacement. As the game started to slip away for Valiants, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. The Valiants coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. After 66 minutes, Valiants used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. The crowd gasped as K. Casters of Valiants was flattened by an opponent after 72 minutes and had to be carried off. M. Syman came in off the bench. Valiants's M. Harto got himself booked for a foul. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, K. Bocheński got himself booked. The manager of Monrawell was not happy. Possession in this half belonged to Monrawell, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Valiants's best player was K. Landvoogd. On the other hand, A. Coissoró's play was disheartening. Most important Monrawell player was B. Smith. A. Spittel was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 3.