matchreport - 16-Jan-10 - gaulois v. german as
Team German AS
Author GAS Management
line up
 GOAL
Zafar Evren

DEFENSE
Andre Koehlmann
Denis Mecklenburg
Steffen Schacher
Philipp von Pein

MIDFIELD
Thommy Berner
Jens Hoffmann
Dennis Thun

STRIKERS
Volker Giebitz
Michael Klemm
Sascha Maric

SUBS
Markus Dolenga
Philipp Rode
Florian Schmidt
Jens Taubken
A VICTORIOUS START INTO THE NEW YEAR
 With regulars Herrmann and Madse injured coach Joerg demanded utmost focus and determination to get the start into the new year right. And indeed the Germans appeared to have found into the game quite quickly, gaining possession in midfield, using their fast wingers to target tall strikers Sascha and Volker with high balls in the center of the box.

After 15 minutes, however, the team lost  its pace and focus as the match turned scrappy with neither side being able to put a decent string of passes together. During this phase Gaulois were even handed a definitive scoring opportunity, gratitude of a German central defender who sloppily failed to clear a long ball upfront. The French striker said "thank you" and was through on goal but found his master in Zafar, who produced a magnificent safe by stealing the ball off the opponent's foot.

The Germans had now used their "out of jail card". This, perhaps ironically, served as a wake up call for the Whites who suddenly started to orchestrate some nice moves. However, Jens' shot after 28 minutes went just wide.

With half an hour gone 'Die Mannschaft' was, at last, firmly in control of the game, carrying the game once again over the wings, starting to create dangerous situations upfront. In the 37th minute a long ball by Meckes was picked up by Pippo who went past one defender before being (fairly) tackled by a second just before attempting to target the goal. Two minutes later the tireless Dennis crossed the ball from the left to Sascha who found Volker, perhaps onside, to make it 1-0 from a close range.

Barely 60 seconds later a nice cross from Jens was converted by Sascha, surely onside, but the otherwise very solid referee somehow saw this differently. And suddenly it all happened: another nice run by Dennis over the left in the 43rd was followed by a pass to Volker who was brought down in the box. Micha made no mistake with the penalty, 2-0. The halftime score.

The second half started slowly with neither side creating any danger. After 63 minutes another nice run from Dennis over the laft side, who had a very good day, broke the deadlock. Dennis passed to Sascha who knocked it on to Volker who hammered it into the bottom right of the goal from 15 yards, 3-0.

The Germans now once again increased pressure, bringing some fresh legs and one of these, belonging to Mr Rode, converted a high ball into the box a from short distance to make it 4-0 after 69 minutes.

Gaulois, to their credit, never gave up and tried to push for a consolation goal throughout the remainig 20 minutes but the GAS side remained in control until the final whistle, looking very solid with Jens Taubken and Meckes in defense, and even creating a few more dangerous situations upfornt but without scoring a fifth.

Overall a pretty solid performance by the Germans who surely had an unconvincing first 25 minutes but eventually found to their game and looked the more spirited and fitter side until the end. The post Christmas match practice vis the various midweek league encounters in the run-up to the Cosmo start surely contributed to this.

Florian Schmidt
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