GOAL
Zafar Evren
DEFENSE
Hermann Bergmann
Rino Binder
Sascha Maric
Jens Taubken
MIDFIELD
Matthias Bertl
Andre Koehlmann
Franz Lanthaler
Phillip von Pein
Steffen Schacher
STRIKER
Volker Giebitz
SUBS
Jordi Costa
Markus Dolenga
Florian Schmidt

 Surely, it was never expected to be easy against a strong Brewerkz side, and a repeat of the somewhat fortuitous semi-final win against them during the pre-season Windmill Cup would have required everyone to be on their toes for the full 90 minutes. With several key players out, the manager's pre-match instructions were crystal clear: keep it tight and close them down in midfield, concentrate, mark your men in defense and don't allow this technically gifted side to impose their game on us.

This worked for the first 40 minutes in the first half and, not that is was of much relevance, the final 35 minutes in the second. And had Rino be a bit more lucky with his shot from 20 yards after only 3 minutes, who knows ...  GAS played the managers' instructions and battled bravely for almost 40 minutes, until one of the many dangerous Brewerkz runs over the right side resulted in a cross that was deflected by Hermann to beat Zafar, who had an impeccable day so far: 0-1. And while the Germans were still pondering about their response a terrible pass into the run of a Brewerkz attacker just outside of our own box allowed our opponents to make it two just before the break. An early Christmas present  ... well, there was more of that to come.

Firstly, however, the GAS side were presented with a fantastic opportunity in the 48th minute to find a way back into the match. A mis-kicked clearance landed with Volker who played an accurate pass to Madse who made no mistake in the resulting one-on-one situation.

Hopes were kept alive for more or less  45 seconds, than it was early Christmas again! A freekick from the right found the whole GAS defense fast asleep (yes, these lines look familiar, I used them against the Swiss last week), allowing a Brewerkz striker to beat poor Zafar with an overhead kick - totally unchallenged.
Three minutes later it was 1-4 after a GAS defender had kicked a hole into the air rather than clearing an easy cross from the right.

With Brewerkz taking it somewhat more easy from there, and the Germans with three fresh players on the pitch, the remaining 35 minutes turned into a more even affair again, with little opportunities on either side. The only noteworthy event was perhaps the referee's answer to a Brwwerkz player who vigorously demanded a yellow card after a challenge by his GAS marker: "You want a card? I buy you one after the match."

Missing some key players can't serve as an excuse for GAS, whose day was spoiled by some horrible individual errors, sloppiness and lack of concentration when it mattered. At top Cosmoleague level such an attitude gets punished mercilessly. Something to think about and to work on ...

Thanks to the Brewerkz team for a valuable and fair lesson in football. Good luck for the rest of the campaign.

Florian Schmidt