Cougars 3 - 0 Fish (391463969)

59692 spectators had come to Royal Athletic Park this cloudy day. Daniele De Marzi was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Pentti Adamsson and Carlo Temmel. Fans of both teams had been eagerly awaiting this British Columbia derby and were doing their best to outshout their opponents. Cougars started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Bortolotto - Mazzanti, Olivier, Paio - Prazeres, Loftus, Blanco, Ben Jeddou, Sherwin - Schwerz, Shmatovalenko.

Fish tactics involved an interesting 5-3-2 combination. Lineup: Ahlerberg - 宽彬 (Kuanbin), Chevalier, Richtscheid, Õnnepalu, Theinert - Miličić, Espinoza, Rockx - Savoy, Primdahl.

Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Fish. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to J. Schwerz, but the Cougars player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! Fish's S. Theinert got himself booked for a foul. Cougars put in a good effort on the right, but A. Prazeres saw his volley fly wide of the mark 25 minutes into the game. 30 minutes into the game, F. Richtscheid had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came D. Girardeau. Cougars's G. Sherwin showed his experience after 41 minutes, as he expertly set himself up to take advantage of a rebound off the crossbar, but his shot was tipped harmlessly out of the way. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Cougars enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 76 percent of possession.

After 66 minutes Cougars's F. Loftus limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. Cheers filled the stadium as E. Mazzanti broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to Cougars. We may never know what E. Mazzanti was thinking when he tried to pass the ball through a crowd of opponents. Luckily for him, Fish's V. Miličić somehow missed the wide open net. Cougars solidified their lead at the 85 minute mark, as A. Prazeres dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 3 - 0. The players of Cougars now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. With 89 minutes played, the Fish coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. F. Le Boutillier came on, G. Rockx had to leave the fray. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Cougars, with 80 percent of the ball.

Cougars's top performer was clearly V. Shmatovalenko. However, G. Bortolotto made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Fish player was without a doubt 梁. 宽彬 (Kuanbin). F. Le Boutillier was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 0.