Miami 4 - 1 Penguins (392029970)

Dark skies made the crowd of 30852 at Miami Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. José Posada was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rubén Pérez and Ebo Bekenkamp. Miami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Smaal - Spence, Darby, Vindeløv - Sprengers, 云峥 (Yunzheng), Žuljević, Schorfheide, Márquez Nogueras - MacCammond, Senzanonna.

Penguins had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. Lineup: Góra - Eskens, Mota, Fałdziński - Secretário, Jokipii, Catalão, Tayşı - Marques Lourenço, Strumendo, Coll.

Miami saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Today, Penguins's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Penguins's M. Coll finished emphatically to make the score 0 -1 after 17 minutes, after the enigmatic L. Eskens pulled a delightful long pass from his box of tricks to bypass the defence. The home crowd cheered when, after 18 minutes, A. Mota's charge up the middle resulted in the keeper making one of his best saves of the day. After 34 minutes of play, T. Darby equalised for Miami after an elegant attack from the right. 40 minutes in, Penguins's A. Mota received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to Penguins, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

After 62 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. S. Senzanonna easily put the ball away to give the lead to Miami. 2 - 1 A well-executed free kick by S. Senzanonna after 79 minutes made it 3 - 1 for Miami. The home side's K. Žuljević came close to extending the lead 81 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but Z. Góra managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. A well placed corner kick from S. Senzanonna was followed by M. Spence's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for Miami, the score now 4 - 1. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Miami lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Miami's K. Žuljević left the field after 86 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was D. Barthélémy. Miami had most of the ball, with 62 percent of possession.

The most dominating Miami player was without a doubt C. Vindeløv. On the other hand, S. Sprengers's play was disheartening. Penguins's top performer was clearly F. Marques Lourenço. L. Eskens was a disappointment, however. The match ends 4 - 1.