Hakirya 6 - 3 benben9 (393022401)

The crowd of 44449 turning up at Hagivha today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Hakirya decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Raganato - Bregantin, Skandrani, El-Gibril - Schäferkamp, Suykerbuyk, Guikema, Micalizzi, Bak - Fasoulakis, Capobianco.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for benben9. Lineup: Grò - Glass, Gysels, Breha - Thyholt, Bonen, Eiger, Säfskär, Fodor - Masscheleyn, Geraskin.

The wings were the focus of most of Hakirya's attacks today. 0 - 1 was the score with 11 minutes played, after D. Geraskin cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for benben9. It was a bad day for the usually speedy O. Fodor. The mud seemed to slow him down. C. Capobianco charged down the left and had a wonderful opportunity to score the equaliser for Hakirya, but the shot went well wide of the goal. V. Aveline was called on to replace Hakirya's H. Guikema after 26 minutes following a nasty collision. The visitors' D. Bonen took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 33 minutes into the match. 0 - 2 for benben9. I. Eiger wanted to play on, but the benben9 coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 34 minutes into the game by B. Cirignola. The coach of benben9 was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 34 minutes, D. Oved came on for T. Säfskär. Content with how the game was proceeding, the benben9 coach let A. Moreira Faria replace D. Bonen after 34 minutes. At this point, it was obvious that the players of benben9 lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. It was obvious that Hakirya had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Hakirya's K. El-Gibril got the home crowd going when he finished off a left wing charge, reducing the away team's lead to 1 - 2. The rain made it hard for players like C. Capobianco to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. With the crowd on their feet chanting wildly, some great moves down the right hand side after 42 minutes gave Hakirya a wonderful opportunity to level the score, and H. Schäferkamp stepped up to the challenge. 2 - 2 Halftime score was 2 - 2. Hakirya enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 66 percent of possession.

52 minutes into the match and the home team took a 3 - 2 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Hakirya was E. Bak. The home side's V. Fasoulakis came close to extending the lead 65 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but G. Grò managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. The referee was not popular with the home supporters after he awarded benben9 a controversial penalty after 71 minutes. F. Gysels made no mistake, levelling the score at 3 - 3. As the match clock reached 79 minutes, Hakirya's organisation began to suffer due to a lack of experience. Hakirya fans held their breath as V. Aveline scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 4 - 3! After 83 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and E. Bak gave the Hakirya supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 5 - 3. The Hakirya coach was visibly pleased with the score so far, but still ordered a few tactical changes 83 minutes into the game. The players of Hakirya now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. B. Cirignola behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 85 minutes as he gave the ball away to W. Suykerbuyk. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Thighs bulging, D. Geraskin charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. Hakirya were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. Hakirya's M. Bregantin increased the lead to 6 - 3, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 88 minutes. K. El-Gibril left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 89 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. J. Isomursu was the replacement. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, B. Skandrani took over the role of being the Hakirya captain. The Hakirya players could smell victory in the air. B. Skandrani wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for E. Wasserman after 89 minutes. M. Bregantin became the new Hakirya captain. With 89 minutes played, B. Cirignola of benben9 fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Hakirya, with 63 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Hakirya player was without a doubt V. Fasoulakis. On the other hand, E. Wasserman's play was disheartening. Most important benben9 player was T. Masscheleyn. D. Breha turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 6 - 3.