Appy 6 - 3 kickers (390242176)

Dark skies made the crowd of 40379 at Het IJskonijnenhol a little nervous, but the rain held off. Roger Høiberg was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Florin-Bogdan Ianu and Ulrich Brunnenmaier. Appy started off with a 3-4-3 lineup. The following players took the field: Mans - Holzing, van den Brakel, Kankaisto - Arruebo, Peters van Ton, Tuur, Rubik - Alberts, Struikman, van Tunen.

kickers tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Brassac - Overbeek, Dam, van Hulst - Kornelis, Spriet, Urbanus, Mollema, Forsius - Lugau, Brankaert.

Y. van Hulst came close to putting the visiting team one up 4 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but A. Mans managed to tip the ball to a corner. K. Kankaisto of Appy seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 1 - 0 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by B. Peters van Ton. After 6 minutes a well-practised indirect free kick routine by Appy was easily anticipated by the defenders. The players forward were so well marked, they were left with few viable options. Appy managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when G. Alberts cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. M. Drielsma was called on to replace Appy's L. van Tunen after 19 minutes following a nasty collision. A corner kick created great disorder in the penalty area with a goal nearly scored by W. Lugau. At last, kickers's T. Forsius was able to backheel the ball in. 2 - 1. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave P. Holzing from Appy a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 26 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Appy's B. Peters van Ton increasing the lead to 3 - 1. The visitors got a chance to pulling one back after 31 minutes, due to a defensive blunder leaving M. Dam completely unmarked. His strike was pathetic though, easy prey for the home side's keeper. Appy increased the lead as P. Holzing struck to make the score 4 - 1 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. The teams went for the halftime break at 4 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to Appy, who controlled the ball 54 percent of the time.

Things were deteriorating for the away team as Appy scored another to make it 5 - 1 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for P. Arruebo after 61 minutes. 68 minutes in, Appy's D. van den Brakel received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. After 76 minutes, M. Drielsma put Appy ahead 6 - 1 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. The players of Appy now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. K. Kankaisto should probably have put his team up another goal after 79 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by J. Brassac kept the visitors in the game. The away team improved the scoreline to 6 - 2, as W. Lugau struck home, set up well by a play on the left 81 minutes into the match. kickers were desperate to get a goal back and pushed forward through the middle 82 minutes into the game. After a scramble in the box, the ball dropped to B. Kornelis, who smashed it home to make the score 6 - 3. Appy enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

Most important Appy player was G. Alberts. M. Drielsma turned in a dismal performance, however. kickers's best player was C. Brankaert. B. Kornelis was a disappointment, however. The match ends 6 - 3.