Berkley 8 - 0 Flamengo (391609384)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Filosophy I saw a crowd turnout of 11262. Jip Olthuis was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Mario Valle and Orlando Salazar. The derby had been the talk of São Paulo all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. Berkley decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Girardello - Neves Brito, Ayala, Castaneda, Caballero - Correia, Mantilla, Loebbeke, Crisp - Boensma, Hannula.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Flamengo. They fielded: Cominetti - Couto Lemos, Klein, Chapecó, Baiano - Giacomini, Samuel, Díaz, Eanes - Sassá, de Almeida.

At the beginning of the game, Berkley appeared to have already taken this victory to the bank. Berkley showed off their creative tactics. The home side put themselves ahead 1 - 0 after 7 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from T. Neves Brito, who scored with a stunning volley following a cross from the right wing. Berkley put themselves up 2 - 0 when X. Ayala broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. By now, the players in Berkley felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. With 23 minutes played, N. de Almeida of Flamengo fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. With 32 minutes played, Berkley's B. Castaneda almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. Berkley will have to do without D. Mantilla for a time, due to a bad foot injury at the 34 minute mark. He was substituted by E. Bănăţean. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Berkley scored another to make it 3 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for A. Correia after 35 minutes. M. Sassá of Flamengo was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Berkley's R. Caballero struck his penalty well enough to beat the goalkeeper and extend the home team's lead to 4 - 0 after 39 minutes. The teams went for the halftime break at 4 - 0. Berkley had most of the ball, with 73 percent of possession.

With 47 minutes played, X. Ayala could have brought this one home for Berkley as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, D. Baiano got himself booked. The manager of Flamengo was not happy. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. A. Boensma squirmed through their central defence after 65 minutes, increasing the lead to 5 - 0. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave T. Neves Brito from Berkley a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 69 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Cheers filled the stadium as E. Bănăţean broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 6 - 0 to Berkley. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Berkley to 7 - 0 as E. Hannula finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Berkley's E. Hannula increasing the lead to 8 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to Berkley, who controlled the ball 82 percent of the time.

Berkley's best player was B. Loebbeke. On the other hand, E. Bănăţean's play was disheartening. Y. Klein performed admirably for Flamengo. U. Cominetti was a disappointment, however. The match ends 8 - 0.