viresi 8 - 0 Mullen (392069089)

18817 spectators arrived at Laranjeiras, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Patrik Gunnarsson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Mauro José Liano and Steffen Hamburger. People from all over Massachusetts had joined up for the derby. viresi started off with a 3-4-3 lineup. Starters: Mańko - Brandbye, Alexandre, Baštić - Pataki, Kanervala, Galun, Dent - Andersson, Escobar, Toh.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Mullen. The following players took the field: Cabrera - Lim, Rustam, Covarrubias, Irizarry - Jiménez, Vollmer, Schilz, Bhatti - Gokhale, Tadaj.

viresi saw most attack opportunities on the wings. viresi took the lead 13 minutes in, as M. Toh broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. The visitors kept the pressure on to tie the game when, after 14 minutes, V. Schilz broke through the centre and found himself alone with the keeper. K. Mańko made a great block, though. viresi were great at switching from defence to attack, and after 15 minutes, E. Andersson swept through the middle on a counterattack, making the score 2 - 0. After 28 minutes, viresi's T. Kanervala fell awkwardly, but was determined to stay in the match. That's the spirit! Against a lesser team, viresi could very well have succeeded with their smart indirect free kick routine after 29 minutes. A trio of passes took the ball all the way past the defenders, but by then the intended recipient was already blocked off and the keeper could make a leisurely save. viresi put themselves up 3 - 0 when M. Toh broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. viresi's T. Escobar increased the lead to 4 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 41 minutes. 4 - 0 was the halftime score. viresi claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 69 percent.

A. Rustam had a lethal looking free kick that grazed the post after 55 minutes. viresi had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. A great save by keeper T. Cabrera after 58 minutes kept the visitors in the game after A. Alexandre struck from the left with a real cannonball. viresi's F. Pataki was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - M. Toh managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 5 - 0 after 81 minutes. That was his third goal of the match - a hat trick for M. Toh. At this point, it was obvious that the players of viresi lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Cheers filled the stadium as M. Dent broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 6 - 0 to viresi. viresi managed to extend their lead to 7 - 0 when T. Escobar cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave S. Vollmer from Mullen a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 88 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of viresi to 8 - 0 as T. Kanervala finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. viresi enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 80 percent of possession.

Most important viresi player was M. Dent. T. Kanervala was a disappointment, however. F. Tadaj performed admirably for Mullen. However, T. Cabrera made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 8 - 0.