"We played most of the game in their half, but until you score the third goal, you never know" - words spoken by the great Arsene W after the Gunners win at Man City. The same could be said for the Swiss on this grey Saturday afternoon. But back to the beginning....

 Excellent conditions at Dunearn Sec, a light drizzle and a good pitch. For the first 25 minutes or so the game went according to (Swiss) plan: an early goal by Jason Eldridge - a beautiful volley from 20 meters - gave the Swiss an early lead. A moment of switching off in the Swiss defense allowed the Germans to equalize. But when Christian Buchmann scored from Thomas Franz's cross it was back to "normal". And that's when Arsene Wenger's quote from above comes in. Instead of doubling the lead, the Swiss were suddenly on par with the Germans: a speculative shot took a deflection and left Bill no chance. 2:2 - and that was followed by 5 minutes of madness: two quick German counter attacks and - Bingo - 4:2 Germans! The Swiss obviously felt like being in the wrong movie. Four shots on goal - four goals. German efficiency. But to be fair, their quick passing game was impressive. When Christian Buchmann scored again with his organge boots we went into the break only one goal down - and still all to play for in the second half.

 The second half started with another cracker. A German player scored the goal of his life with an overhead kick. That was followed by a 25 meter cracker from Heiko. All shots went in....That deflated the Swiss team completely and there was no coming back. What's the point of having 60% or more of the ball possession when we can't defend? I have never played in a game where we scored 5 and still lost! All credit to the Germans to a good performance. Fast breaks and clinical finishing. We must have had at least 20 attempts on goal and the Germans about 10. But the result says it all: 8:5 Germans. For the record: the final two Swiss goals were scored by Thomas Franz and Danny Wardlow. Special mention for our new recruit: Christopher Stokkmo had a very good first game and will no doubt strengthen the squad.

With two consecutive defeats now the Swiss need to quickly strengthen their defense. And as I said in my last week's match report defending is not the exclusive privilege of defenders. We also need to be more alert and hungry. We probably felt after a very good start to the game that this would a walk in the park. Well, there are no walks in the park against a German team.

 Gong Xi Fa Cai to all!