Match Review: Casuals FC vs German-Swiss All Stars

• DF David Phelps
• DF Lee Scurr
• DF Mark Stead
• MD Sam Hallam
• ST Andy Woodbridge
• ST Kazuki Sato-Brennan
• -- Lee Burgess
• -- Patrick McMullen
• -- Lee Dae Hee
• -- Harry Blakey
• -- Tom Lees

• DF Frazer Young
• MD Rich Simmonds
• -- Douglas Palmstedt

Bizarre.

Casuals turned up Friday looking to continue on the goal scoring entertaining route against a very tough and efficient Germans. Before the game even started the Gaffer pulled out, Lee lost a tooth and Frazer declared himself fit – all bizarre. Up stepped Coach Andy and Siri Steady who whilst doesn’t like to speak decided to speak through the team talk – all bizarre. The squad assembled and the 11 ran out ready to put in a performance – bench looked strong and ready. Game started well with Casuals dominating the ball, keeping possession and moving it well. What was strange was the GAS keeper who even after the 3rd min was clearly time wasting and showing some real bad sportsmanship – bizarre after only 3 mins, we didn’t know why and then someone said they had no subs….ah! Whilst dominating we were not really creating clear chances and it was tough as the GAS had come with a plan to get bodies behind the ball and look for the odd counter through Michael and the American lad in the middle. Dominating possession doesn’t win you games and whilst Casuals tried to be patient frustration was creeping in and play was becoming forced resulting in possession turnover. One of the clearer opps was a well struck free kick from the now toothless Lee, saved well by the time-wasting GK who by now was even getting abuse from his own players. Half time came and at 0-0 confidence was high however the chat was to move the ball quicker and for the strikers / mid to work a little harder on movement. GOAL……GAS score on a rare break! Terrible start for the Casuals! The big Bas picked up a loose ball in our box and with 3 defenders around him it looked like a safe place however he created space and laid off a simple pass for Michael to take a free shot beating Harry at his near post! Disaster! Casuals made some changes to freshen up and still believed that chances would come. GAS were happy to let us have the ball and get bodies around the ball. Toothless Lee had a header saved and Casuals had a few more attempts on goal but most were tame. Frustration was setting in and the GK was faking injuries wherever he could, Dave got booked for a challenge on the GK after his frustration boiled over. Casuals kept pressing and pressing and left a gap at the back for the GAS to have a rare break however Harry made a fine save to keep Casuals in the game. So it ended! 1-0 loss and incredibly frustrating on so many levels. GAS were brilliant and their game plan was executed perfectly, Michael was a constant menace and caused our backline concern throughout. The less said about the GK who one would hope wont replicate the sportsmanship he showed and so triumphantly bragged about after the game. GAS fully deserved the win and we look forward to the rematch soon, well done! Casuals will be back to the drawing board with a lot of work to do on how to break down stubborn opposition and how to improve on movement on and off the ball. GAS MOM – Michael Casuals – Dave – kept going, provided quality down the right.

• Marius Teich DF
• Quirin Regensburger MD
• Oscar Moreno ST
• Juergen Stich --
• Per-Ola Roest --
• Stephan Lutz --
• Fumiaki OGURO --
• Tatsuya Mizutani --
• Teo Premto --
• Michael Klemm --
• Thommy Lim --

• Kelvin Au --
• Mark Leonhardt --
• Bastian Wolff --

Game start at 8:15 pm, both teams comes out of their starting with fully power. In first 25 min Casuals try to attack more with long passes on the wings and crosses in penalty box with some good chances but without success to score. In last 20 min of the first half Germans start to balance the game and playing with short passes in the midfield. First half finish 0-0 with quiet and fair play game. 5 min after second half start Germans score with counterattack, great long pass from Mizu to Micha who had a lot of time in penalty box in front of the keeper and the numbers change to 1-0. After scoring continued just as intense for the rest of the game, casuals start to be more aggressive especially in last 10 min but without any result, Germans still controlling the game and playing with short passes, in last min of the game another chance for Germans to score the second goal, great long ball from Basti to Kelvin in penalty area but the keeper was in position and the game ends 1-0 for Germans. Positive game for German All Stars , also good start in 6 week 12 points.