matchreport - 12-Sep-09 - german as v. hotspurs
Team German AS
Author GAS Management
line up
 > GOAL
> Zafar Evren
> DEFENSE
> Hermann Bergmann
> Rino Binder
> Steffen Schacher
> Philipp von Pein
> MIDFIELD
> Thomas Berner
> Jens Hoffmann
> Michael Klemm
> Andre Koehlmann
> STRIKERS
> Volker Giebitz
> Sascha Maric
> SUBS
> Michel Herrmann
> Florian Schmidt
> Markus Dolenga
> Rene Schieber
A MIRACULOUS TURNAROUND TO QUALITY
 The odds were so firmly against the Germans that even the most adventurous
> bookies would have considered 10-1 odds on a German victory as an
> unattractive bet. And so we entered the match against our "nemesis" with a
> record of three straight defeats (in the plate cup final and, twice, during
> the Windmill Cup) as well as memories of a performance to forget from last
> week's encounter with Brewerkz.
>
> If that match had taught us a lesson or two about football, well, they were
> all taken on board. After a mild Kaiseresque "Jungs gehts raus und spielts
> Fussball"-style pre-match address by stand-in player-manager Tommy, today's
> GAS team were strong, very strong.
>
> Impeccable in defense, marking their opponents tightly, and extremely
> efficient in switching from defense into attacking mode and vice versa GAS
> caused serious trouble to Hotspurs on more than one occasions, without
> allowing them to get into their game.
>
> It should have been 1-0 after 17 minutes when MIcha was through on goal on
> the left side but was brought down by the last Hotspurs defender. Clearly a
> red card ... or wasn't it? Well, the officials' interpretation of football
> rules can be described as idiosyncratic at times ...
>
> So the Germans had to wait for another four minutes to take a well deserved
> lead. Andre stole the ball from an opponent and just hammered it under the
> crossbar from 20 yards. A goal to remember. Only two minutes later it should
> have been 2-0 but Sascha's shot, one-on-one with the goalie, went just
> across the bar.
>
> GAS kept dominating the game, passing the ball around nicely. One of those
> passes found Micha in the 38th minute who moved around one defender to hit
> the bottom left of the goal. 2-0 it was at halftime.
>
> In the second half Hotspurs threw everything at us but the GAS defense,
> marshalled by a superb Steffen and an outstanding Hermann, caused increased
> desperation to the dangerous Hotspurs strikers.
>
> And after 62 minuters the Germans orchestrated another promising counter-
> attack with a long diagonal pass from Jens to Micha who took on three
> defenders to make it 3-0. Volker and Sascha could have made it 4-0 within
> the next five minutes but neither of the two managed to convert from close
> range.
>
> Right against the run of play Hotspurs clawed one back with a nice
> individual effort of their #15 striker who, however, was sent of shortly
> thereafter. His moment of madness didn't allow Hotspurs to pile on as much
> pressure as they had wanted to. From the 70th minute onwards GAS made a
> couple of changes, bringing some fresh legs to put the pressure again on
> Hotspurs. And so it was again Micha who picked up a mis-kicked ball from the
> goalie to make it 4-1, his third of the match, and the final score.
>
> Micha deservedly took the MOM accolade for his hattrick, but it must be said
> that the whole team performed truly well throughout the 90 minutes.
>
> Thanks to the Hotspurs team for a competitive match of football. We look
> forward to another encounter with you guys during the first cup round.
>
> Florian Schmidt
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