Spider 7 - 1 Rubene (366388383)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 76954 had shown up at Black Spider United Arena for the match. Julio Testa was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Florindo Zaffaroni and Bódog Élő. All of Rīga was shut down for the day, as fans of both clubs came to the derby. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Spider. They fielded: Barrantes - Zagarskikh, Onisko - Ambers, Streltsov, Boghe, Cadieux, Adamiak - Pielau, Glorieux, Omino.

Rubene started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. Lineup: Igreja - Łukaszyk, Huikari, Linnemann, Moriarty, Garbacki - Irabarreta, Jean-François, Belu - Ibargüén, Kupiszewski.

Today, Spider's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Rubene were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Spider fans held their breath as K. Ambers scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 1 - 0! Spider were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. Spider's V. Streltsov increased the lead to 2 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 13 minutes. Spider put themselves up 3 - 0 when B. Pielau broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. Confident in their lead, Spider's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. With 23 minutes played, G. Omino of Spider fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Spider, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Spider to 4 - 0 as B. Pielau finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. The teams went for the halftime break at 4 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Spider, with 66 percent of the ball.

48 minutes in, Rubene appeared unsure on how to play and their organisation was only passable. After 52 minutes, a long pass from Spider's G. Omino caught the defence out of position. B. Glorieux collected the ball, and with the goal at his mercy calmly rolled the ball just inside the post. 5 - 0. J. Boghe increased the lead for Spider to 6 - 0, getting a head onto a hooked ball from the right. The ball looked to have taken a deflection on the way in, but he's claiming it! 70 minutes in, an amazing pass from the left side resulted in a goal for the visitors, as W. Moriarty anticipated the through ball and scored, reducing the deficit to 6 - 1. The referee showed Rubene's L. Ibargüén the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The bench was restless, and with 75 minutes passed Rubene's coach gave T. Paasipohja the opportunity the player had been hoping for. S. Jean-François reluctantly left the field. L. Ibargüén's speed was almost enough to give Rubene a goal after 77 minutes, but his nice pass to I. Kupiszewski was not taken care of properly. Coming from the right, K. Ambers almost managed to score another goal for Spider, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. Rubene's counterattack was impressive and was only stopped by a shocking foul. Somehow, the referee's cards remained in his pocket - a terrible decision! W. Moriarty's resulting free kick was easily saved by the keeper. 86 minutes into the game, Rubene seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a passable level of organisation. After 88 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and B. Glorieux gave the Spider supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 7 - 1. With 89 minutes played, the Rubene coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. R. Wellisch came on, F. Irabarreta had to leave the fray. Rubene needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 89 minutes I. Kupiszewski made way for M. Wereszczyński. Q. Igreja was the new captain of Rubene - handed the armband by the departing player. After 89 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Rubene found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to weak. Spider enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 69 percent of possession.

Spider's top performer was clearly G. Omino. However, V. Streltsov made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Rubene player was without a doubt L. Ibargüén. M. Wereszczyński on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 7 - 1.