Jambi 2 - 1 pingarati (393974386)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 2986 to Calcigroms. Mika Ünner was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Július Jahodjar and Wolfgang Piotrowski. Jambi had chosen a strategic 5-3-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Merlo - Dieninghoff, Čuma, Buluc, Kofod, Fudali - Jarmoc, Frutos, Weifenbach - Vaughan, Ondrušek.

pingarati tactics involved an interesting 5-2-3 combination. Lineup: Strods - Negrilă, Kandaurov, Ellenberger, Vezan, Tonga - Baroni, Inguanzo - Freire, Orta, Flore.

Jambi mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for pingarati. Some great play up the middle by Jambi led to a chance for S. Vaughan to score after 5 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. Jambi were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. Jambi's S. Vaughan tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but couldn't get past the visitors' defenders. After 32 minutes, the defensive line of pingarati created a counterattack through the middle that gave E. Freire a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. At 37 minutes played, P. Jarmoc came in from the right with the intention of giving Jambi the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. It was 0 - 0 at the break. Jambi claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 83 percent.

It was obvious that team Jambi had instructions to attack in the middle instead of on the wings. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, D. Orta got himself booked. The manager of pingarati was not happy. Some things can only be learned through experience, and G. Buluc should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting pingarati a goal with 62 minutes of the match played. 71 minutes into the game pingarati managed a counterattack, but D. Orta took a soft shot from the left flank that was easy prey for the alert keeper. 77 minutes into the game, pingarati wanted to bring some new energy to their game. R. Tonga gave B. Vercesi a quick hug as he left the field. Jambi players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. Jambi had most of the ball, with 82 percent of possession.

As neither team was able to break the deadlock before the end of regular play, the teams took to the field again for extra time. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Jambi, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. pingarati almost scored after a counterattack 103 minutes into the match, but E. Freire took a shot from the left that landed harmlessly in the side of the net. With the score still deadlocked after extra time, the teams took to the field for a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner.

Jambi's P. Ondrušek looked nervous even as he was putting the ball on the spot. He didn't take much of a run up, and his weak shot was easily saved by the keeper. Oooh - how unlucky! pingarati's T. Negrilă attempt hit the underside of the bar, but rebounded down into the grateful arms of M. Merlo. The score stays 0 - 0. Jambi's P. Jarmoc coolly put the ball past E. Strods. 1 - 0. pingarati's S. Vezan didn't look like he was confident as he stepped up, and produced a badly struck penalty - right into the arms of M. Merlo. The score remained 1 - 0. Jambi's S. Dieninghoff made no mistake. E. Strods didn't have a chance. 2 - 0. pingarati's A. Inguanzo drove the ball hard to the corner but couldn't get it past the outstretched arm of M. Merlo. The score remains 2 - 0. Clearly nervous from the start, Jambi's M. Fudali took a long run up, but could only blast the ball over the bar. The score remains 2 - 0. pingarati's D. Ellenberger looked like he knew exactly where he wanted to put the ball, but unfortunately his shot went wide of the left hand post. Still 2 - 0. Jambi's B. Čuma looked like he knew exactly where he wanted to put the ball, but unfortunately his shot went wide of the left hand post. Still 2 - 0. pingarati's J. Baroni showed he has nerves of steel when it comes to penalties, easily changing the score to 2 - 1. Jambi's best player was P. Ondrušek. E. Frutos on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating pingarati player was without a doubt D. Ellenberger. However, J. Flore made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 1.