Nekalan 3 - 0 Kelka (385515391)

Dark skies made the crowd of 41165 at Nekalan Kenttä a little nervous, but the rain held off. Paul Hilgers was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Kaspars Cipa and Alje Weeda. Nekalan decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Hämäläinen - Ifran, Kemppainen, Franc - Ramoudt, Mercier, Asta, Miraç, Moscardelli - Gaspà, Jacquemont.

Kelka had chosen a strategic 4-3-3 formation. The following players took the field: Päivänen - Freitag-Vetter, Toskas, Kunkel, Godenrath - Vara del Rey, Galczak, Fridatos - Zanfrini, Miele, Tietjens.

Today, Nekalan's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Kelka seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Slack defending gave Nekalan a chance to take the lead with 5 minutes played, but G. Miraç's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. Kelka had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 23 minutes in when J. Miele came up alone against A. Hämäläinen who managed a block. 28 minutes into the match and the home team took a 1 - 0 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Nekalan was E. Moscardelli. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Nekalan, who controlled the ball 56 percent of the time.

J. Gaspà's speed is always a threat when he gets a little room to move, and 55 minutes into the match was no different as he broke free of his man to send a delightful through ball to P. Jacquemont who knocked it in for Nekalan. 2 - 0! P. Jacquemont could have increased the lead after 70 minutes, but his shot hit the post after a nice combination in the middle of the park. Nekalan put themselves up 3 - 0 when S. Ifran broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. J. Gaspà should probably have put his team up another goal after 82 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by K. Päivänen kept the visitors in the game. Nekalan enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

The most dominating Nekalan player was without a doubt A. Hämäläinen. V. Kemppainen turned in a dismal performance, however. Kelka's top performer was clearly M. Zanfrini. On the other hand, J. Miele's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.