LANCERS 2 - 2 verdy (386936529)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 50637 to ASAMA SKY ARENA. Thorben Franzl was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tor Frederiksen and Timo Parpola. People from all over Kanto had joined up for the derby. LANCERS decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. The following players took the field: Pighin - Małasiewicz, Fihri, Casella, Stanojević - 森 (Mori), Masuko, Iwahashi, Takeshita, Kouba - Doppagne.

verdy started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Ahlollah - Varkila, Garbay, Nelkenbrecher - 岡崎 (Okazaki), Schuon, Stana, 前田 (Maeda), 加藤 (Kato) - Rodrigues, Zeynalov.

LANCERS saw most attack opportunities on the wings. R. Zeynalov of verdy seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 0 - 1 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by F. Schuon. 14 minutes into the match LANCERS's M. Masuko head butted an opponent nastily, and so the referee sent him off immediately. The player down was A. Garbay. The verdy bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. With 19 minutes played, LANCERS's O. Casella found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. After 40 minutes, F. Kouba made a dash down the middle past the away team's defenders to score the goal that made it 1 - 1. Halftime score was 1 - 1. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by verdy, with 51 percent of the ball.

Players in LANCERS heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. LANCERS had to make a substitution after 49 minutes. D. Iwahashi limped off the field and was replaced by M. Bežić. verdy had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 50 minutes in when J. Rodrigues came up alone against L. Pighin who managed a block. As the 65 minute mark approached, the verdy coach decided it was time for a substitution. J. Varkila reluctantly made way for V. Matieş on the pitch. LANCERS were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. LANCERS made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left J. Doppagne completely alone with keeper H. Ahlollah, who made a spectacular block. LANCERS fans held their breath as 功. 森 (Mori) scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 2 - 1! verdy needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 80 minutes 敬. 岡崎 (Okazaki) made way for G. Fanti. The bench was restless, and with 80 minutes passed verdy's coach gave C. Cognard the opportunity the player had been hoping for. A. Garbay reluctantly left the field. After 82 minutes, the visitors tied it up at 2 - 2 when a fantastic pass from the left was finished off by C. Cognard. 82 minutes in, verdy's S. Stana received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Possession in this half belonged to LANCERS, who controlled the ball 54 percent of the time.

Most important LANCERS player was J. Doppagne. However, N. Stanojević made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating verdy player was without a doubt J. Rodrigues. H. Ahlollah turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 2.