Spike 2 - 4 Findarve (388133247)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Highbury saw a crowd turnout of 24355. Fredis Eilands was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne and Paulo Cabaça. Spike had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Starters: Masny - Rosoux, Vefik, Iványi - Olsson, Milik, Moreira, Kalker, Mellár - Castro-Medinilla, Tsukehara.

Findarve tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players took the field: Urogataya - Lehrer, Senoba, Dato - Hirschi, Sowirth, Coelho, Ghindyal - Rolandsson, Jonasson, Malmhult.

It was an obvious ambition of Spike to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. The guests almost went up by a goal after 19 minutes when R. Jonasson came through and shot from the right. The ball bounced harmlessly off the post, though. 33 minutes in, Spike's N. Mellár received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Spike took the lead, 1 - 0, after a penalty 39 minutes into the match. A. Olsson scored from the penalty spot. In a rapid move 41 minutes into the match, E. Hirschi of Findarve lost his man and passed the ball to the unmarked T. Malmhult who easily hit it home to make it 1 - 1. Luckily the ref didn't see him taunting the opposing fans in celebration - naughty boy! Findarve took the lead 43 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. S. Senoba was the scorer. With 44 minutes played, S. Vefik of Spike fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. A. Rolandsson of Findarve took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 44 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 3. Findarve had most of the ball, with 54 percent of possession.

After 60 minutes, Spike switched N. Mellár with J. Bergman, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. A misunderstanding between the visitors' keeper M. Urogataya and his left defence could have resulted in a goal for Spike, but S. Vefik's finish was way too lame. W. Masny got a fingertip on A. Ghindyal's shot from the left 81 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. A well placed corner kick from A. Olsson was followed by H. Iványi's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for Spike, the score now 2 - 3. With 84 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed T. Dato of Findarve to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 2 - 4. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave T. Malmhult from Findarve a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 85 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Findarve's A. Ghindyal was shown a yellow card after 88 minutes for slicing down an opponent. The crowd groaned when S. Vefik, having maneuvered his way down the right, fired the ball just wide and missed a great opportunity to reduce the deficit for Spike. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Findarve, with 54 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Spike player was without a doubt U. Tsukehara. S. Milik was a disappointment, however. Findarve's best player was R. Jonasson. However, M. Urogataya made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 4.