Ascensione 5 - 1 Yankees (378572526)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 870 had shown up at Parroch for the match. Marek Kawa was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Andrej Kaleb and Carl Ramsten. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Ascensione. Lineup: Cozzella - Ghilardi, Scagnoli, Zimmerer, Rotgans - Criscione, Dumitrescu, Bradshaw, Gómez de Barreda - Jesiołowski, Caldara.

Yankees started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Shamai - Van Woensel, Szczoczarz, Porzio - Borz, Giacomello, Vilmos, Reichenau, Kurtishi - Iturregi, Fazari.

Yankees saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Ascensione's L. Scagnoli tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but couldn't get past the visitors' defenders. The referee showed Yankees's L. Vilmos the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After 15 minutes of play, S. Criscione gave the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. The visitors kept the pressure on to tie the game when, after 20 minutes, G. Fazari broke through the centre and found himself alone with the keeper. P. Cozzella made a great block, though. Against a lesser team, Ascensione could very well have succeeded with their smart indirect free kick routine after 29 minutes. A trio of passes took the ball all the way past the defenders, but by then the intended recipient was already blocked off and the keeper could make a leisurely save. Ascensione put themselves up 2 - 0 when A. Zimmerer broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. With 36 minutes played, D. Reichenau had a fantastic opportunity to reply but his shot flew harmlessly into the side-netting of the goal. After 38 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Ascensione found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to solid. It was 2 - 0 at the break. Ascensione had most of the ball, with 61 percent of possession.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that Ascensione had solid organisation. A. Caldara increased the lead for Ascensione to 3 - 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! After 54 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by L. Rotgans might have resulted in another goal for Ascensione. However, H. Shamai made a spectacular save. After 60 minutes, Yankees switched A. Iturregi with C. Vaca, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. D. Reichenau of Yankees received a yellow card after 62 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. B. Dumitrescu squirmed through their central defence after 65 minutes, increasing the lead to 4 - 0. 70 minutes into the match, the speedy C. Vaca easily outpaced A. Zimmerer, chipped the keeper and made the score 4 - 1. A lovely run by Ascensione's I. Gómez de Barreda left his markers for dead and should have resulted in a goal, but the finish went just wide. With 85 minutes played, Ascensione put themselves up 5 - 1 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to L. Jesiołowski, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. Ascensione claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 57 percent.

Ascensione's best player was B. Dumitrescu. G. Ghilardi on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Yankees player was C. Vaca. L. Van Woensel was a disappointment, however. The match ends 5 - 1.