Buckeyes 0 - 8 Pacific (392028083)

Dark skies made the crowd of 17798 at Buckeyes Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Jolyon Wildschut was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rickard Pålsson and Giuliano Palmieri. Buckeyes started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Rasmussen - Michel, Nagi, Durmishi, Grollmuss, Zehrer - van Swaaij, Neitzel, Gerhard - Floris, Sajó.

Pacific had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. They fielded: Yakalı - Trier, Rebillot - Todaro, Areias, Ambauen, Walter, Schärer - Ibrahim, Anjala, Schärfke.

The guests took the lead 6 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in A. Ambauen scoring to make it 0 - 1. Pacific increased their lead after 7 minutes when M. Todaro broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 2, much to the home crowd's dismay. With 27 minutes played, Pacific put themselves up 0 - 3 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was O. Ibrahim. Buckeyes's S. Durmishi left the field after 29 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was J. den Braber. The home crowd cheered when, after 30 minutes, T. Schärfke's charge up the middle resulted in the keeper making one of his best saves of the day. The home crowd was not impressed when C. Schärer came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 33 minutes. Pacific were now up 0 - 4. By now, the players in Pacific felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. The referee showed Pacific's A. Ambauen the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Halftime score was 0 - 4. Possession in this half belonged to Pacific, who controlled the ball 66 percent of the time.

A well placed corner kick from M. Trier was followed by T. Anjala's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for Pacific, the score now 0 - 5. A. Areias increased the visitors' lead by putting a volley away after a pass from the right. 0 - 6. After 75 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed T. Anjala to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 7. After 76 minutes of game time, T. Schärfke had an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors' lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but J. Rasmussen was in the right place and tipped the ball over for a corner. S. Nagi behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 84 minutes as he gave the ball away to T. Schärfke. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. The Pacific free kick 86 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of T. Schärfke, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 0 - 8! J. Rasmussen kept the home side in the game with a magnificent save when M. Trier delivered an almost perfect free kick to the far post. Pacific claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 77 percent.

J. Michel performed admirably for Buckeyes. On the other hand, J. den Braber's play was disheartening. Pacific's best player was T. Anjala. C. Schärer turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 8.