AVENTURA 1 - 0 Hoboken (392023619)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 46010 to WATERLOO. Tomasz Jasiewicz was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rickard Klintell and Nestor Perrin. AVENTURA started off with a 5-2-3 lineup. Starters: Littlefield - Lefebvre, Molteni, Ryan, Bartolucci, Metsemakers - Neal, Linschoten - Schlich, Delayen, Hountondji.

Hoboken tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Campoo - Galvan, Haemmerle, Nazarenko - Olbrich, Nolen, Suazo, Forbes, Sojo - Uttiger, Aponte.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of AVENTURA. M. Haemmerle had a good opportunity to give Hoboken the lead as he charged down the right and struck the ball towards the top corner, but the home team's goalkeeper made the save. AVENTURA's defence sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counterattack with 10 minutes gone, but P. Lefebvre's finish was met by the reaching hands of the keeper. Hoboken's R. Aponte had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 20 minutes having been played. D. Gentry was the replacement. R. Forbes was handed the Hoboken captain's armband. A counterattack by AVENTURA after 25 minutes could have resulted in a goal, but C. Hountondji, coming in on the left, couldn't get the shot off. A well placed corner kick from J. Linschoten was followed by O. Bartolucci's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for AVENTURA, the score now 1 - 0. AVENTURA's B. Delayen was shown a yellow card after 30 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Unfortunately for Hoboken, D. Gentry was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. K. Lundgren replaced him. J. Linschoten could have increased the lead after 32 minutes, but his shot hit the post after a nice combination in the middle of the park. 1 - 0 was the score after the first half. Hoboken had most of the ball, with 60 percent of possession.

After 51 minutes AVENTURA tried to exploit their counterattacking skills, unfortunately, P. Lefebvre's shot sailed wide after his break down the right. After 64 minutes Hoboken's D. Campoo contracted a slight foot injury, but didn't want to leave the game. M. Haemmerle of Hoboken was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. The visitors' equaliser seemed sure to come after 82 minutes, following a one on one situation around the left hand side of the goal area, but R. Littlefield got the best of it, blocking the shot from M. Galvan. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave F. Nolen from Hoboken a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 86 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! M. Metsemakers of AVENTURA had to be helped off the pitch as an injury meant he was unable to finish the game. T. dos Santos came in to finish the match. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Hoboken, with 59 percent of the ball.

C. Hountondji performed admirably for AVENTURA. However, K. Ryan made a disastrous appearance. Hoboken's top performer was clearly R. Forbes. K. Lundgren on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 0.