pami 1 - 1 Fofa (385615748)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Ss pami Arena saw a crowd turnout of 3087. Richard Roulier was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Diego Echebarría and Neil Johnstone. pami tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. Lineup: Westermark - Kotilainen, Leppiniemi, Isojämsä, Viinikka - Rantama, Särkilampi, Vilén, Falk - Sandqvist, Hopponen.

Fofa started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. They fielded: den Ridder - Carreño, Cusimano - Ellingsen, Gyosharkov, Pimiä, Iltanen, Jovanovic - Mihaylov, Duyzer, Helenius.

Fofa preferred to finish off their attacks from a distance. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when J. Helenius was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 2 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! After a fine move down the middle P. Sandqvist nearly gave the home side a goal after 15 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. V. Mihaylov had a good try after 17 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide. A free kick aimed at the keeper's far post almost gave Fofa the lead 23 minutes in, but the ball just wasn't able to squirm its way through the defensive wall. With 24 minutes played J. Leppiniemi almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. 25 minutes into the game, D. Duyzer was a hair's breadth away from giving Fofa the lead with a shot from over on the left. A prompt block by Ö. Westermark saved the home team that time. Fofa's E. Cusimano placed the ball right at his teammate's feet after a corner, but V. Mihaylov couldn't finish. 27 minutes into the match, Fofa nearly took the lead, as J. Helenius broke through on the right. Ö. Westermark made the save, however. Fofa's J. Iltanen refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 31 minutes. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Fofa, with 57 percent of the ball.

After 48 minutes, S. Kotilainen came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving pami the lead. D. Duyzer made a good effort at breaking through on the right, but the home team's left defence cleared the ball to a corner. Fofa's slick passing moves completely confused the defence after 67 minutes, but thanks to Ö. Westermark's miraculous save from B. Ellingsen's long shot the score remained unchanged. Fofa levelled the score after 73 minutes to make it 1 - 1, as I. Gyosharkov struck home after a fine midfield combination through the centre, which left him completely unmarked. Fofa claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 61 percent.

pami's top performer was clearly J. Rantama. Ö. Westermark was a disappointment, however. Fofa's best player was M. Pimiä. However, J. Iltanen made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 1.