BOOWZ 1 - 2 Rinkan (393594294)

64658 spectators arrived at ライブハウス武道館, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Justin Duloup was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Maciej Saletra and Henrik Wolf. Fans of both teams had been eagerly awaiting this Kanto derby and were doing their best to outshout their opponents. BOOWZ had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. Starters: 高橋 (Takahashi) - Kallinger, 竹内 (Takeuchi), 梅原 (Umebara), 松原 (Matsubara), Laurense - Ohlsdorf, Fridskär, Boillon, Smith - Pessach.

Rinkan started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. They fielded: Aida - Muraoka, Barta, Pecorelli, Cearense - 杉本 (Sugimoto), Fujii, Alcántara, Tagawa, Shirakawa - Honda.

For their match strategy, BOOWZ had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. The wings were the focus of most of Rinkan's attacks today. BOOWZ created a good opportunity to score 5 minutes into the match when H. Fridskär's hooked ball from the left created a scuffle in front of the goal, and the visitors' defenders had a hard time clearing the ball. Rinkan were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. The counterattacks of Rinkan were deadly and 7 minutes into the game, T. Shirakawa received a nice pass from the right flank, making it 0 - 1. M. Muraoka left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 7 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. J. Clift was the replacement. The visitors almost increased their lead after 19 minutes when a sweetly hit free kick looked like it was heading for the top corner. However the keeper managed to get a fingertip to it, sending it over the bar. Good work by the BOOWZ defensive line after 21 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found 伸. 松原 (Matsubara) alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. It was obvious that Rinkan had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Rinkan's J. Honda made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 22 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. A well placed corner kick from L. Smith was followed by J. Ohlsdorf's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for BOOWZ, the score now 1 - 1. Some good play on the left wing created an opportunity for the visitors 39 minutes into the match, and H. Tagawa wasn't about to let it go by. He got past the defenders and fired a shot that the keeper just missed. 1 - 2 for the visitors. 1 - 2 was the score after the first half. Rinkan had most of the ball, with 59 percent of possession.

BOOWZ's J. Ohlsdorf was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 57 minutes. With 60 minutes played, the BOOWZ coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. D. Valbuena came on, R. Pessach had to leave the fray. Had it not been for one of the home defenders, J. Honda would have put Rinkan up another goal 60 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. The coach of Rinkan was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 65 minutes, G. Kotoku came on for A. Alcántara. Rinkan enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 63 percent of possession.

BOOWZ's best player was D. Valbuena. L. Smith on the other hand, had a terrible day. G. Kotoku performed admirably for Rinkan. However, J. Clift made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 2.