matchreport - 21-Nov-09 - nippon v. swiss
Team Swiss
Author Urs Brutsch
line up
 Crawley, Hakim, Brutsch (Christen), Braegger, Stokkmo, Kaegi (Bobbia), Zul, Steinegger, Schulthess, Buchmann, Williams.
Swiss stretch unbeaten streak
 On a day when most pitches were unplayable, JAS held up very well. With the exception of the last 10 minutes when the rain came down hard (and made the subsequent game impossible to be played), the pitch allowed for "regular" football to be played.

Once again, the Swiss had to dig deep and only had two subs available, one of them back from a 7 month injury layoff without training...Both teams played attacking football and created chances. However, the Swiss always looked the more dangerous side and the more likely to score. Christian Schulthess's header, Thomas Kaegi's stiff grounder, Heinz Steinegger's 25 meter strike all missed the target by inches. On the other side, Nippon tested Bill mostly with balls on the ground, which on the slippery surface were the right recipe. Bill Crawley however had a great day and kept the clean sheet in the first half. One save was particularly spectacular when he dived to his right to turn the ball around the post with his finger tips. But the Swiss finally went onto the score sheet: a corner kick from Heinz Steinegger and Swiss supremacy in the air - confusion in the Nippon box and leading goalscorer Christian Schulthess pounces home the loose ball. A few more chances went missing during the first half but the score remained at 1:0 Swiss.

After the break, we expected Nippon to go all out,  but within 15 minutes the contest was over: first it was Evan Williams who expertly finished after a darting Schulthess run down the flank. And soon afterwards a carbon copy of the first goal: corner kick, Swiss prevailing in the air and this time Evan Williams scoring a poacher's goal. 3:0 and game over. Nippon did reduce the deficit when the Swiss were guilty of falling asleep following a corner kick. But Nippon after that never really threatened and so the Swiss were running out the clock for a comfortable 3:1 win.

Well done Nippon, as always a very fair contest. No yellow cards and for the referee most likely the most relaxing afternoon he has had in the Cosmo League recently....
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