El Ciclon 3 - 1 Univalle (391885561)

Dark skies made the crowd of 54844 at La Castellana "Templo del Futbol" a little nervous, but the rain held off. Janne Flamdahl was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Torben Kautz and Mateo Madrigal. El Ciclon tactics involved an interesting 5-3-2 combination. They fielded: Callejas - Camporrells, Pedraza, Mustapha, Ponce, Orsini - Caldas, Ríos López, Kala - Abbas, Vallejo.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Univalle. Lineup: Barloo - Baracaldo, Kriftel, Giraldo - Isaacs, Núñez, Albañil, Sandoval, Ricaurte - Siti, Brikmanis.

El Ciclon clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. 22 minutes into the game, El Ciclon seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a inadequate level of organisation. This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when A. Isaacs slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against D. Callejas, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. El Ciclon hit back on the counter attack 27 minutes into the game with a free kick. Initially it seemed wasted, hit wide towards the wing. But there was an idea to it - the ball was then crossed towards E. Vallejo, who was waiting for it in the box. That's 1 - 0! Don't forget to thank the set pieces coach for that idea! After 35 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as El Ciclon found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to inadequate. Coming through the middle A. Sandoval almost scored the equaliser for Univalle after 36 minutes, but D. Callejas made an excellent save, tipping the awkwardly curled shot past the post. 37 minutes into the game El Ciclon managed a counterattack, but A. Pedraza took a soft shot from the left flank that was easy prey for the alert keeper. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Univalle had most of the ball, with 59 percent of possession.

Despite his frustration resulting in the smashing of a few teacups, the coach of El Ciclon was able to get his message across, and raised El Ciclon's organisation to solid. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, D. Kriftel got himself booked. The manager of Univalle was not happy. A. Albañil came close to levelling the score 76 minutes into the game, as he was set up with a through ball coming in from the left, but his shot hit the post. After 83 minutes E. Vallejo made a speedy advance and dropped the ball to A. Abbas who shuffled it past the keeper. The score was now 2 - 0. A well-executed free kick by G. Ponce after 84 minutes made it 3 - 0 for El Ciclon. The home team's fans were not happy with the visitors' A. Isaacs's great free kick that resulted in Univalle reducing the score to 3 - 1. 87 minutes in, Univalle's A. Isaacs received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. 88 minutes into the game, El Ciclon seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to inadequate. Univalle enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

El Ciclon's best player was M. Caldas. On the other hand, D. Callejas's play was disheartening. Most important Univalle player was A. Barloo. However, D. Núñez made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 1.