Praetorians 2 - 5 Crowded (393411562)

45388 fans braved the pouring rain at Kolosseum. Ville Ilas was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Stephane Halder and Dirk Stannard. Praetorians started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. Starters: Nguyen - Pacheco, Spannagel, Grassmann, Vuosku - Azevedo, Sandberg, Bonnert, Wölfli - Milchstrasse, Ferruzzi.

Crowded had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. The following players had been chosen: Lisbach - Wyrsch, Pawlik - Fenner, Zeelenberg, Piller, Guazola, Cramer - Terra, Aleksić, Kuruc.

C. Piller was having a great game - if anything the pouring rain seemed to be spurring him on! Crowded took the lead 30 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. K. Terra was the scorer. With 32 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed K. Terra of Crowded to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 2. The visiting supporters hurled a torrent of abuse at the referee when a questionable free kick after 37 minutes led to a goal for C. Milchstrasse, who scored to make it 1 - 2. 39 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 1 - 3 as D. Kuruc finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. With 42 minutes played, D. Wyrsch nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. 1 - 3 was the score after the first half. Possession was split evenly between the teams.

Praetorians were awarded a penalty 47 minutes into the match and C. Milchstrasse fired the ball into the net to make the score 2 - 3. With the scoreboard showing that 55 minutes had been played, Crowded nearly put themselves up another goal after M. Fenner came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. After 75 minutes, Crowded's C. Piller burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 2 - 4. The crowd groaned when C. Milchstrasse, having maneuvered his way down the right, fired the ball just wide and missed a great opportunity to reduce the deficit for Praetorians. V. Pawlik was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. D. Aleksić came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over M. Nguyen but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. After 88 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for K. Terra who increased Crowded's lead to 2 - 5. By then K. Terra had scored three goals - a hat trick! Content with how the game was proceeding, the Crowded coach let T. Azran replace V. Pawlik after 89 minutes. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Praetorians, with 51 percent of the ball.

Praetorians's best player was C. Milchstrasse. On the other hand, V. Grassmann's play was disheartening. The most dominating Crowded player was without a doubt D. Kuruc. T. Azran on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 5.