Tigers 4 - 3 Lotions (374449967)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 61500 to The KC Stadium. Nono Peeters was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Pekka Viita-aho and Tevfik Uytun. Tigers started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Gordon - Sladkov, Hitzfeld, Biegstraaten - Heijboer, Limbrunner, Stanbury, Schulz, Osorio Zayas - Covington, Knowles.

Lotions had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Paul - 云凡 (Yunfan), MacRob, Sprackling - Harle, Hayden, Toon, Tandy, Granner - Sandys, Browne.

Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 15 minutes into the match left Lotions's M. Sprackling completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. Some fine movement on the left led to a Lotions goal after 20 minutes, making it 0 - 2. J. Sandys was noted down as the scorer. Tigers's M. Covington cut towards the middle after 23 minutes, receiving a brilliant pass and slicing through the visiting team's central defence, reducing the lead to 1 - 2. T. Heijboer of Tigers was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. With 26 minutes played, the excellent ball from the wing by Tigers's F. Osorio Zayas reached M. Covington's head, and he is not one to miss such an opportunity - 2 - 2. The referee showed Tigers's M. Covington the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. 30 minutes into the match and the home team took a 3 - 2 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Tigers was M. Covington. By then M. Covington had scored three goals - a hat trick! The teams went for the halftime break at 3 - 2. Tigers claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 57 percent.

The home team will be cursing M. Granner for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem. The match was level at 3 - 3 after 63 minutes. With 75 minutes played, Y. Sladkov of Tigers fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Lotions had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 76 minutes in when S. Harle came up alone against N. Gordon who managed a block. Tigers could have put themselves ahead after 81 minutes but Y. Sladkov missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. After 82 minutes, Tigers raised their score by one when F. Osorio Zayas's dangerous low cross was cleverly tucked in at the near post by R. Knowles. 4 - 3. M. Covington could have increased the lead after 83 minutes, but his shot hit the post after a nice combination in the middle of the park. Tigers enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 58 percent of possession.

Tigers's top performer was clearly M. Covington. On the other hand, T. Heijboer's play was disheartening. Lotions's best player was D. Browne. However, M. Sprackling made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 3.