Vottem 2 - 4 jappies (388491699)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 66460 had shown up at The Great Saloon for the match. Jaber Rais was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Vali Necula and Ignaz Heinis. Vottem decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Busschop - Aertsen, Van Bael, Roumy - Bavelaar, Waelkens, Rotersand, Cederhult, Castellano - De Backer, Iotti.

jappies started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Mertens - Wickby, Tomov, Ribeiro - Fiacre, Pumarino, Claus, Clauw, Lehner - Keymis, Meermans.

Vottem saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Vottem created a good opportunity to score 4 minutes into the match when B. Cederhult's hooked ball from the left created a scuffle in front of the goal, and the visitors' defenders had a hard time clearing the ball. Vottem took the lead after 10 minutes as a result of E. Castellano's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. J. Meermans sailed high above the opponents as he headed in a corner kick from A. Fiacre after 13 minutes of play, making the score 1 - 1. With 21 minutes played, the excellent ball from the wing by jappies's É. Lehner reached J. Meermans's head, and he is not one to miss such an opportunity - 1 - 2. After 25 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave J. Clauw a chance to increase the lead for jappies, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 1 - 3. 27 minutes into the game, jappies worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. With 28 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed R. Ribeiro of jappies to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 1 - 4. J. Meermans wanted to play on, but the jappies coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 28 minutes into the game by M. Wełnic. P. Pumarino was handed the jappies captain's armband. The jappies coach was visibly pleased with the score so far, but still ordered a few tactical changes 29 minutes into the game. At this point, it was obvious that the players of jappies lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 4. jappies claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

The coach of jappies was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 46 minutes, A. Werrion came on for P. Pumarino. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, J. Clauw took over the role of being the jappies captain. A quick free kick deep in the opponent's half found A. De Backer, who produced a brilliant first touch to send it flying beyond the keeper into the net. This reduced the away team's lead to 2 - 4. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Vottem's L. Waelkens was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 65 minutes. J. van Brugge was given a chance to change things around. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from A. Werrion after 70 minutes, and prevented jappies from going up another goal. jappies had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

Vottem's top performer was clearly A. De Backer. G. Van Bael on the other hand, had a terrible day. jappies's best player was T. Keymis. M. Wełnic turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 4.