Kings 1 - 1 Viet cong (384262714)

Dark skies made the crowd of 38663 at The Miracle Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Marco Scalas was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Lucjan Niekowiecki and Paul Schlachter. Kings tactics involved an interesting 5-2-3 combination. They fielded: Houmøller - Moralez, Convery, Manojlović, Leslie, Littlefield - Ranner, Stenberg - Inglefield, Brunier, Callen.

Viet cong started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. Lineup: Aponkus - Tate, Blazon, Ramas, Thurbrand - Stewarton, Blunden, Garriott, Brett, Kelday - Vass.

For their match strategy, Kings had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. Today, Viet cong's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. 19 minutes into the game, K. Stenberg had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came G. Bremaud. The corner kick from R. Inglefield was powerfully met by the head of L. Brunier to make the score 1 - 0. After 31 minutes, Kings were awarded a free kick as their counter attack broke down. The set piece was lifted over the top, intended to open up the defence. However, the target man seemed to be taken by surprise, and could not reach the ball before it crossed the line for a goal kick. 32 minutes into the game, Kings seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a poor level of organisation. The referee showed Kings's M. Manojlović the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Viet cong's right side looked dangerous 38 minutes in, but P. Houmøller made a good save on A. Blunden's hard shot to the top corner. Viet cong had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. The crowd was silenced 43 minutes into the match as the visiting team's D. Garriott came in from the left, levelling the score to 1 - 1. 1 - 1 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Viet cong, who controlled the ball 73 percent of the time.

During the break, Kings's coach went through the team's tactics yet again, getting them up to passable organisation. Players in Viet cong heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. 56 minutes into the game, Kings had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to weak. Kings were able to draw a foul with their counterattacks, but the shot from R. Inglefield went into the arms of the keeper. The guests almost went up by a goal after 79 minutes when A. Vass came through and shot from the right. The ball bounced harmlessly off the post, though. It was obvious that Viet cong had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. As the 89 minute mark approached, the Viet cong coach decided it was time for a substitution. J. Ramas reluctantly made way for C. Vegh on the pitch. A. Vass would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. L. Leach entered the game for Viet cong as the match clock showed 89 minutes. Viet cong claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 75 percent.

Kings's top performer was clearly J. Ranner. M. Convery was a disappointment, however. Most important Viet cong player was D. Garriott. L. Leach on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 1.