Challenge

RFK Stadium
Spectators: 45 (Terracing: 35, Seating: 10, VIP seats: 0) Dark clouds were building up when the players entered the field. None of the them looked very eager to play. Cassius Byrne started the match with the kick off. A collision led to USA getting a freekick after 3 minutes play. Raphael Moore hit a great ball. The referee blew the whistle for a penalty in the 3rd minute of the game. One of USA:s players had nearly got his shirt torn off by an opponent while getting free in front of ACF Fiorentina:s goal. With a little luck, ACF Fiorentina's Federico Kalinowski got control of the ball when Cassius Byrne tried to sneak it across the goal line. 17 minutes into the match, ACF Fiorentina's goalkeeper Federico Kalinowski had to clear away a ball on his right side after a cunning shot by Zach Harrison. A sloppy throw-in by Jacob May in the 22nd minute of the game went astray and was snapped up by ACF Fiorentina's Horia Anisie. In the 25th minute Maximino Cabezon shot on, it seemed, an open goal, but Marco Day saw the ball coming and threw himself on it before it passed the goal line. An unexpectedly hard shot by Maximino Cabezon in the 28th minute of play forced USA's goalkeeper Marco Day to throw himself to the left, to be able to save the ball. After 31 played minutes USA's Monty Rogers stole the ball from his opponents and shot the ball towards the upper left corner, but Federico Kalinowski stretched himself as far as he could, and stopped the ball from passing the line. robbing ACF Fiorentina of the goal. 32 minutes had been played when some careless play by ACF Fiorentina's defense caused the ball to cross the line for a corner. Cassius Byrne was slow to take the kick. During this time USA's players had a chance to rest. Federico Kalinowski was out of position in the 48 minute of play, and Monty Rogers capitalized on the mistake with a soft shot into the goal. Monty Rogers really showed his touch with that goal: 2-1. The away team players looked dejected as the walked off the pitch at half time. They had fought hard, but were still losing 2-1.

When the second half was about to start, both teams quickly lined up and Maximino Cabezon made a kick off. Federico Kalinowski made a wonderful reflex save on a shot from Cassius Byrne in the 62nd minute of play. A collision led to USA getting a freekick after 64 minutes play. Jacob May hit a great ball. ACF Fiorentina's Martin Vellito was substituted for Hildeberto Carvalho. ACF Fiorentina's Hernán Leandro was substituted for Maximino Cabezon. Jacob May kicked well hit freekick during the 65th minute of the match. The crowd rose to their feet as ACF Fiorentina's Hernán Leandro slotted home a wonderful shot that went in to the left of Marco Day. That made the score 2-2 after 67 minutes of play. An unexpectedly hard shot by Edward Mcdonald in the 69th minute of play forced ACF Fiorentina's goalkeeper Federico Kalinowski to throw himself to the left, to be able to save the ball. In the 74th minute, Cassius Byrne ran past the defenders and hit a shot which went straight ahead into goal. Federico Kalinowski was frozen by the shot and now it was 3-2. ACF Fiorentina made a substitution. Anselmo Luar replaced Saturnino Michael. USA's Sam Campbell was substituted for Cassius Byrne. Marco Day took care of the ball after a well-directed shot from Hernán Leandro, even though the ball almost passed him on his left side. Edward Mcdonald kicked well hit freekick during the 91st minute of the match. USA's Marco Baker was substituted for Edward Mcdonald. USA's Khalid Parry was substituted for Monty Rogers. Edward Mcdonald hit a great freekick 93 minutes into the match. In the 95th minute, Gabriel Gaufred hit a crossing free kick to the open man running down the field. USA walked away with a well-earned victory that was much celebrated by the crowd.