HATOVIM 3 - 6 Sporting (379171305)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 2888 at HATOVIM MEOD today. Eldad Klinger was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ralph-Lothar Obojes and Roland Büchner. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for HATOVIM. The following players had been chosen: Duro - Gasparri, Lehtmets, Varela - Brandkvist, Musafi, Demirel, Cyrta, Baglin - Zomer, Shihrur.

Sporting decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Vázquez - Svanén, Ronkiewicz, Villanova - Roca, Vidanía, Velasco Tovar, Tuvskog, Spínola - 成功 (Chenggong) , Canales.

For their match strategy, HATOVIM had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. Sporting were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. Sporting had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. Sporting's I. Spínola managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 6 minutes. 0 - 1. After a fatal mistake from the away team's right side defence 15 minutes into the match, an alert X. Brandkvist bagged the ball for HATOVIM, levelling the score to 1 - 1. After 19 minutes, D. Baglin came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 2 - 1, giving HATOVIM the lead. The visitors almost came back with an equaliser 34 minutes into the match after a good combination down the middle, but when M. Canales tried to finish the attack, he couldn't deliver the shot hard enough to seriously challenge the keeper. The visiting team's T. Svanén was able to score the 2 - 2 equaliser with a header 35 minutes into the match, after some good work on the right. It was obvious that Sporting had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Sporting's F. Velasco Tovar gave the visitors a 2 - 3 lead after 35 minutes with a superb strike from the right. 37 minutes in, HATOVIM's J. Varela received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 3. Sporting claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 67 percent.

K. Lehtmets stunned the crowd with a brilliant counterattack from the left, giving HATOVIM the goal to make it 3 - 3. The home keeper expected a move to the right, but E. Vidanía surprised him with a free kick aimed the other way 60 minutes into the match. 3 - 4 for Sporting. A drive down the left side allowed 郭. 成功 (Chenggong) to get in close and score another goal for Sporting after 62 minutes, taking the score to 3 - 5. After the ball was lifted in from the left, T. Svanén was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 68 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. After 69 minutes, Sporting's M. Canales burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 3 - 6. The players of Sporting now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Sporting's F. Villanova was shown a yellow card after 76 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Sporting, with 67 percent of the ball.

The most dominating HATOVIM player was without a doubt B. Shihrur. S. Musafi on the other hand, had a terrible day. M. Canales performed admirably for Sporting. However, W. Vázquez made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 6.