Strikers 0 - 9 Golden (392515260)

It had rained all day, but 12000 hardy fans still made it out to Cincy Strikers Arena. Mikael Hasselbom was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rémi Durand and Felix Ritzenthalen. Strikers tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Atkins - Quiroz, Pontiluis, Smith, Clark - Mann, Cheney, Waldron, Talley - Goss, Wilson.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Golden. They fielded: Otersons-Andersons - Price, Sisk, Manfredi, de Bruin - Bruschi, Sidenskär, Macdonald, Spitzer - Shorter, Da Silva.

Some good play on the left wing created an opportunity for the visitors 2 minutes into the match, and L. Macdonald wasn't about to let it go by. He got past the defenders and fired a shot that the keeper just missed. 0 - 1 for the visitors. With 6 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed S. Price of Golden to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 2. B. Manfredi received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 11 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 3. The Golden fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. After 14 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for T. Shorter who increased Golden's lead to 0 - 4. After this, you could see that the players of Golden were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. 15 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 5 as S. Price finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. D. Smith behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 20 minutes as he gave the ball away to V. Da Silva. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave W. de Bruin from Golden a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 28 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Halftime score was 0 - 5. Golden claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 84 percent.

N. Atkins got a fingertip on J. Sidenskär's shot from the left 56 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like D. Wilson. The visitors' V. Da Silva took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 75 minutes into the match. 0 - 6 for Golden. A penalty was awarded after 84 minutes, and J. Sidenskär made the most of his chance to put Golden up by another goal. 0 - 7 for the visitors. Strikers's T. Mann was shown a yellow card after 86 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Golden were forced into a substitution as J. Spitzer couldn't continue due to some rough treatment, forcing T. Faure to come in off the bench. 88 minutes into the game, Golden were awarded a penalty and J. Sidenskär was able to increase the visitors' lead to 0 - 8 rolling the ball in by the right post. 89 minutes into the game a free kick by J. Sidenskär found its way through the home side's poorly assembled defensive formation, making Golden's lead 0 - 9. This third goal completed a hattrick for J. Sidenskär. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Golden, with 85 percent of the ball.

Most important Strikers player was M. Talley. N. Atkins turned in a dismal performance, however. Golden's top performer was clearly B. Manfredi. On the other hand, R. Sisk's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 9.