FIFA > The Match Against Poverty 2005 > Report

The Match Against Poverty 2005
December 22, 2005 at 'LTU Arena', Duesseldorf, Germany

Reports & Pictures by IndianFootball.Com Editors-in-Chief
Arunava Chaudhuri and Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

Want to see pictures? - <Pictures>

Report:

The Match Against Poverty 2005 Introduction:

The Match at the LTU Arena in Duesseldorf, Germany is the third yearly "Match against Poverty" to raise funds for the "United Nations Development Programme" ( www.undp.org ) to contribute to mobilizing people around the world to combat poverty, and financed the following projects in Asia, Latin America and Africa: Comoros, Benin, Brazil, Guinea Bissau, Namibia, Vietnam, Morocco, Haiti and Sri Lanka
The first such charity match was held 2003 in Basel, Switzerland; while last year the match was held at the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Spain.

Report Match:

Kickoff: 19.30 CET
Ronaldo&Friends - Zidane&Friends
Goals: 0-1,0-2 Diego Tristan (12',26'), 1-2 Philip Cocu (43'), 1-3 Dimitar Berbatov (7?'), 2-3 Aboutarika (8?'), 2-4 Oliver Pocher (89').
Yellow Cards: -.

The two teams for the "Match against Poverty" were lead by the Real Madrid CF teammates Brazilian striker Ronaldo and France midfielder Zinedine Zidane. The duo led two teams of world football stars and German stars from other walks of life onto the pitch at the LTU Arena for the "Match against Poverty". The football stars were mainly from across Europe, but also stars from North America and Asia where there. Sadly no onefrom India, but maybe that is something for the future.
In the first half Zidane&Friends looked the stronger and better of the two sides with Deportiva La Coruna Spanish striker Diego Tristan scoring two goals in the 12. and 26.minute to give his team a 2-0 lead, but two minutes before the breather PSV Eindhoven's Dutch international Philip Cocu reduced the deficit after a melee in the penalty area following a corner. It was 2-1 for Zidane&Friends at halftime.
After the breather a lot of substitutions took place to allow all stars who had come to Duesseldorf to play and show their skills. Zidane&Friends increased the lead through Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov, before Al-Ahly's Egyptian striker Aboutarika reduced the deficit to one goal for Ronaldo&Friends. The final goal came a minute before the end through German comedian Oliver Pocher, who just had to tap the ball in from a cross from Werder Bremen's French midfielder Johan Micaud.
It was an overall successful evening with nearly 50.000 people coming to watch the match to raise money to fight poverty.

Ronaldo&Friends: 1-Roman Weidenfeller (76-Ricardo, 12-Gomes), 18-Andreas Lambertz (76-Ricardo), 14-Jorge Andrade, 8-Philip Cocu, 15-Nuri Sahin (5-Daniel van Buyten), 28-J Moutinho, 17-Sunday Oliseh (27-Jiayi Shao), 7-Julio Baptista (16-Aboutarika), 11-Freddy Adu (Carl-Uwe Steeb), 10-Rivaldo (2-Felix Sturm), 9-Ronaldo [Captain] (20-Mijatovic, 16-Markus Feinbier)
Coaches: Rudi Voeller, Jose Peseiro

Zidane&Friends: 1-Kujovic (12-Tom Starke), 33-Darijo Srna (2-Sergio Garcia, 15-Zizos Vryzas), 27-Kompany, 6-Fernando Meira, 17-Maldarasanu, 4-Tymoschuk, 7-Diarra, 8-Pedro Mendes (19-Niko Kranjkar), 10-Zinedine Zidane [Captain] (21-Sami Al-Jaber, 16-Sven Ottke), 9-Diego Tristan (3-Oliver Pocher, 20-Johan Micoud), 5-Kalou (11-Dimitar Berbatov)
Coaches: Lothar Matthaeus, Mircea Lucescu

Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Peter Henes (Germany), Rainer Werthmann (Germany)
Fourth Official: Thorsten Kinhoefer (Germany)

Attendence: 48.783