Cosmos Federation

The final of the 2nd edition of the Cosmos Cup

1449 punters turned up at St. Williams Park, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. S.S.COSMOS tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Carreras - Alzogaray, Schreeber, Benítez - Andes, Washington, Lungu, Frostenby, Pawlaś - Vacca, Bladsjö.

Croydon Cosmos decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Ariva - Behrens, Rasmussen, Thomas, Arno - Sundukov, Merillat, Sandell, Halsted - Fair, Omay.

S.S.COSMOS seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Croydon immediately set off using their skill at pressing their opponents. S.S.COSMOS made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left Mats Bladsjö completely alone with keeper Viljar Ariva, who made a spectacular block. A wonderful trick by Marek Pawlaś that left Roberto Arno bewildered really deserved to end in a goal but the keeper made a fine save. 11 minutes into the game, a free kick combination hooked into the box by Hugo Schreeber almost resulted in the home team taking the lead, but the last header went wide. Allan Fair of Croydon was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. The pressing tactics used by Croydon were successful at containing their opponents. The guests took the lead in the 24th minute, after a right-side attack resulted in Rieuwert Behrens scoring the 0 - 1 goal. Roman Andes of S.S.COSMOS received a yellow card in the 25th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Ciprian Lungu was just a finger's breadth away from an equaliser for S.S.COSMOS, but Viljar Ariva managed to ward the closing shot off to a corner. It was 0 - 1 at the break. The forty-five minutes were dominated by S.S.COSMOS, with an impressive 63 percent possession of the ball.

49 minutes into the game, Mats Bladsjö came close to evening the score with a dangerous shot that went just wide of the bar. Mattias Frostenby pulled a real crowd pleaser as he, in the 77th minute, wove through the guest's entire central defense line and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. Mattias Frostenby gave his S.S.COSMOS the lead with 2 - 1, as he successfully challenged the guests' central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the keeper's right post. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in S.S.COSMOS's Paco Alzogaray putting the lead up to 3 - 1. In the 89th minute, S.S.COSMOS's Hugo Schreeber received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The pressing tactics used by Croydon were successful at containing their opponents. This half belonged to S.S.COSMOS, who controlled the ball 61 percent of the time.

S.S.COSMOS's top performer was clearly Francisco Carreras. Roman Andes was a disappointment, however. Mattias Sandell performed admirably for Croydon. Rieuwert Behrens turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 1.