Pelicans 1 - 4 Crushers (392894148)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 1199 at The Swamp today. Paavo Vätti was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Przemysław Starzyński and Leonard Bezhentsev. Pelicans tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Dias - Moortgat, Lemahieu, Venclík - Cowan, Moyal, Lachmayer, Cabrisas - Penn, Kopatz, Clifford.

A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Crushers. The following players took the field: Øelund - Al-Aqrabi, Aronberg, Tronstad - Cachopas, Witsen, Verrière, Maciaszczyk - Spanò, Di Stefano, van Brugge.

Crushers saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Pelicans could have put themselves ahead after 17 minutes but S. Penn missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. After 21 minutes, Crushers's C. Spanò made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. The referee showed Crushers's S. Al-Aqrabi the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. M. Moortgat received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 31 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. With 38 minutes played, Pelicans's H. Cabrisas found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from T. Witsen after 39 minutes, and prevented Crushers from going up another goal. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, A. Maciaszczyk got himself booked. The manager of Crushers was not happy. 40 minutes into the game, Pelicans seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a weak level of organisation. With a shot curled in from just outside the middle of the penalty area after 41 minutes played, S. Penn of Pelicans made the score 1 - 1. After 42 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Pelicans found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to weak. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Crushers, with 51 percent of the ball.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that Pelicans had passable organisation. After 57 minutes, Crushers put themselves up 1 - 2, as C. Spanò finished off a strike from the left with a real cannonball of a shot. As the game started to slip away for Pelicans, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. The Pelicans coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. After 60 minutes, Pelicans used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. H. van Brugge was in the clear after breaking the offside trap following a Crushers counterattack from the left after 67 minutes. His neat finish made the score 1 - 3. 68 minutes into the game, Pelicans had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to passable. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Crushers, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. With 71 minutes played, Crushers put themselves up 1 - 4 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was V. Di Stefano. Pelicans enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

Pelicans's best player was M. Moortgat. S. Penn was a disappointment, however. Crushers's top performer was clearly V. Di Stefano. However, A. Maciaszczyk made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 4.