Match Review: 1TM Latini FC vs German-Swiss All Stars

• GK Pete O'Brien
• DF Andrew Mollitt
• DF Lee Bradshaw
• MD Jamie Townsend
• ST Jacob Saurin
• ST Luke Townsend
• -- Ben Morley
• -- John O'Neill
• -- Daniel Gregson
• -- Raphael Desmond
• -- Mark Raven

• DF Jonathan Baker
• -- Jon Kelly
• -- Darren Wareing
• -- Mathieu Harding

Latini hit the hand break

Saturday, 3PM, Turf City. I wanted to avoid the obligatory weather updates but with half the squad giving temperature readings as we got changed, it’s fair to say it was a hot one. Tactical Tally turned into Tinkerman Tally as he rotated the line-up with the customary few missing. In came Lee Bradshaw, aka Phil and CFD (Cross-fit Dan) to the back four for their Latini debut’s. We also welcomed back POB between the sticks having been ruled out of the Euro’s in the summer due to injury. Unfortunately, his comeback was about as successful as East 17’s foray back in the charts, and nearly as painful too! 10 mins in and the big man suffered an unfortunate broken hand as he turned a low drive around the post. All the best with the surgery POB and we wish you a speedy recovery. On came a third debutant, Jon Baker, with stand-in skipper for the day Pet-shop donning the gloves for the remaining 80 mins. We managed to edge ahead when a scrappy affair was punctuated by a rare move of quality. Duplo received the ball outside the box and played a great reverse through ball to his older sibling who slotted home with his left foot to give Latini the lead. Unfortunately, we were unable to push on from there and GAS continued to counter-attack with menace and eventually got an equaliser with a fine move of their own. A swift counter attack down the Latini left eventually saw an excellent low cross headed home from close range with a stooping diving header. 1-1 at the break. The second half followed much the same pattern as the first, with GAS looking the more likely to score next despite Latini having most of the possession. It was however a relatively quiet game for both keepers until the final 10 minutes when the game seemed to open up. Lego thought he had scored when a driven shot seemed destined for the top corner only to be expertly tipped over the bar. At the other end, GAS had some promising attacks but weren’t able to test the stand-in keeper. That was until the dying embers when a through-ball from ex Latini stalwart Basti (who despite being German, looks horrible in the white & black kit! Red and white stripes a much better look in my opinion!) sent the GAS attacker through on goal and a low shot into the bottom corner sealed all 3 points for the Germans. A really tough afternoon for Latini who struggled to find any rhythm throughout. Well played and congratulation to GAS who deserved their win and good to see you for a post-match beer at Rob Quay. It’s a long season and as we have already seen from the first few weeks, there will be points dropped throughout the season as the strength of the league has improved considerably. Time for Latini to stay strong and respond positively starting with a Friday night clash vs Nippon. Thanks to Henni and Flynny for coming along to support too Kit: - Pep Drinks: - Captain Eyebrows

• Steffen Schacher DF
• Phillip Von Pein DF
• Oscar Moreno ST
• Jordan Fitzharris --
• Nathan Williams --
• Fumiaki OGURO --
• Matthias Lezsak --
• Tatsuya Mizutani --
• Gautam Butalia --
• Bastian Wolff --
• Mark Leonhardt --
• Teo Premto --
• Florian Gädke --
• Michael Klemm --
• Thommy Lim --

Germans Cosmos Leceister?!

2 games, two victories. Who would have expected that from the Germans after last season? And also at the beginning of Saturdays match it did not look like this at all. Latini started very strong and was pressing a lot, but the Germans back fours and the center mids were quite stable. After 10 minutes GAS found their way into the game as well and from that on it was not only Latini playing anymore. It was a very intensive game with lots of hard but fair duels in the midfield. After about 20 minutes the German defense was for once not a hundred percent awake and Latini took their chance by a quick play through the middle. Nevertheless, we kept our heads up and continued playing and through some very nice combinations especially with Basti, Micha and Stephan upfront created a lot of chances. After another one of these beautiful combinations on our right side, starting from Nathan in the back over our winger Jordan to Micha who brought the ball in and Stephan finishing it with a fantastic header, the score was 1:1. After halftime Latini had the majority of the game in terms of ball possession, whereas the Germans had the better chances with Micha and Stephan but were a bit unlucky in their finishing. After all, a draw would have been a deserved result, but our Japanese birthday child “Hugo” insisted on donating himself by scoring the winning goal nearly last-minute after a fantastic pass from the midfield (I think it was Basti). Man of the match: Basti, because of his dominant play in the middle and his outstanding tackling rate. Thanks to Latini for the fair game and the beers afterwards. Looking forward to have the next round at Brotzeit after our next game and wish Latinis goalie and our Florian Gaedke a speedy recovery!