United 2 - 1 gloria (386357519)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 26281 at Sashimi Arena today. Leonardo Biepiewski was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Christophe Desplat and Heine Vinther. United started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Ishrat - Jonsson, Månsson, Oksfeld, Pereira, Acreano - Pandiani, Motti, Peeters - Gradilla, Byrdal.

gloria decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. Lineup: Amarilla - Winterholler, Carbonell, Marolt, Gidor - Jacomuzzi, Gaspar Gonçalves, Bajerski, Sebastião - Fernández Prada, Moustin.

United clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. United's defence sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counterattack with 9 minutes gone, but R. Månsson's finish was met by the reaching hands of the keeper. gloria's T. Winterholler could have put the guests one up after 13 minutes after chasing a through ball from the right, but A. Ishrat was as fast as a snake, grabbing the ball from under his nose. United were great at switching from defence to attack, and after 14 minutes, J. Byrdal swept through the middle on a counterattack, making the score 1 - 0. The referee showed gloria's R. Jacomuzzi the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 26 minutes played, L. Moustin came in from the right and could have evened the score, but the defenders successfully repelled the attack by gloria. With 36 minutes played, the visitors could have drawn level after A. Sebastião came through the middle, but his kick went wide. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave M. Bajerski from gloria a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 37 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! After 38 minutes, gloria switched A. Sebastião with C. Custeau, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. United were forced into a substitution as J. Jonsson couldn't continue due to some rough treatment, forcing D. Tavares Coelho to come in off the bench. T. Winterholler made a good effort at breaking through on the right, but the home team's left defence cleared the ball to a corner. United showed their counterattack skill 42 minutes into the match by breaking through the middle, with J. Byrdal scoring uncontested for 2 - 0. After this, you could see that the players of United were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. 2 - 0 was the score after the first half. gloria enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 67 percent of possession.

gloria's right side looked dangerous after 53 minutes, as R. Jacomuzzi broke through. A. Ishrat continued to stifle them, however, as he made the save look easy. A. Ishrat made a brilliant save 70 minutes into the match, blocking a rocket of a shot from C. Custeau on the right hand side. The visitors' right side was dangerous today; L. Moustin made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily reduced the lead to make it 2 - 1 72 minutes into the match. Possession in this half belonged to gloria, who controlled the ball 70 percent of the time.

J. Byrdal performed admirably for United. D. Tavares Coelho turned in a dismal performance, however. gloria's best player was R. Jacomuzzi. However, E. Amarilla made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 1.