Bujinkan 1 - 1 FC_-_Chelsea (394201409)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Hombu Dojo saw a crowd turnout of 1816. Márcio Lameiras was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Miguel Juan Sardá and Lech Skwarek. Bujinkan started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. They fielded: Läfhult - Viinikainen, Kuzmin, Samaille, Pietraszek, Sundelin - Löfström, Raitamo, Kurtti - Glušac, Koskenkorva.

A 5-4-1 alignment was the formation of choice for FC_-_Chelsea. Lineup: Canaval - Lebigot, Braatz, Bitli, Niemonen, Hermann - Köberl, Krobath, Papagni, Thouin - Hovenkamp.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Bujinkan. Bujinkan had a good opportunity to take the lead as D. Glušac came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of R. Canaval. Some things can only be learned through experience, and J. Viinikainen should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting FC_-_Chelsea a goal with 35 minutes of the match played. 40 minutes into the game, Bujinkan had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to passable. 41 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but P. Papagni, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. Coming in from the right, Bujinkan had a good opportunity to convert on a counterattack after 42 minutes, but D. Glušac's attempt to finish was easily stopped. It was 0 - 0 at the break. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by FC_-_Chelsea, with 53 percent of the ball.

During the break, Bujinkan's coach went through the team's tactics yet again, getting them up to solid organisation. Bujinkan made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left A. Löfström completely alone with keeper R. Canaval, who made a spectacular block. After 60 minutes, V. Kurtti sent the corner kick right to A. Kuzmin who headed it sharply past the keeper. 1 - 0! 69 minutes into the game, Bujinkan seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a passable level of organisation. Almost all the way down to the corner flag, FC_-_Chelsea's G. Köberl somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for D. Hovenkamp, who struck for 1 - 1. 82 minutes into the game, A. Koskenkorva had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came P. Aalto. Good work by the Bujinkan defensive line after 84 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found P. Aalto alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. After 85 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Bujinkan found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to weak. Unfortunately for FC_-_Chelsea, R. Hermann suffered a concussion after 88 minutes and had to be taken for tests. The coach had his head in his hands after realising he could not send a replacement onto the pitch, and the team had to continue a man short. Possession in this half belonged to FC_-_Chelsea, who controlled the ball 58 percent of the time.

Bujinkan's best player was D. Glušac. V. Kurtti was a disappointment, however. P. Papagni performed admirably for FC_-_Chelsea. On the other hand, D. Thouin's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 1.