matchreport - 06-Feb-10 - swiss v. hollandse
Team Swiss
Author Urs Brutsch
line up
 Crawley, Hakim (Roberts), Brutsch, Bobbia (Burzle), Braegger, Schulthess, Keiser, Anthony, Garatti (Stokkmo), Williams (Stroppini), Stacher (Tsalkitsis).
Hollandse deservedly move to semis
 SJI in very good condition and a slightly overcast sky were the excellent conditions for this quarter final in the Plate. Right from the start, it was obvious, which team was more hungry to win. Hollandse was much more aggressive (in a positive sense!) and worked much harder than the Swiss. The neutral observer must have asked why the Swiss bothered to turn up at all.
Hollandse were clinical in their finishing: from 5 or 6 chances in the first half they converted 4. Swiss were able to respond to the first goal with a well taken equalizer: Evan Williams headed home from Hakim's free kick. But that was pretty much the only highlight for the Swiss in the first half. Sloppy defending (which does not only start in defense), easy passes going astray, more talking than walking...that's not how you win a game in this league. The Dutch showed how it's done: quick passing to go behind the flat-footed Swiss defenders and clinical finishing. Two one-on-ones were well taken and left Bill with no chance. 4:1 Hollandse at the break.

The half time talk was that it could not get worse and that we still had a chance to get back into the game. The second half was a totally different affair: the Swiss now had probably 70% of possession and hit the woodwork three or four times. We missed a penalty and should have been given another one when a Swiss was bulldozed to the ground from behind as he was preparing to go for a cross...haven't seen a more obvious penalty in many years....BUT, we can complain until the cows come home (only a Swiss can write this...), we can blame it on bad luck (missed penalty, penalty not given, post, crossbar, crossbar, third Hollandse goal was offside etc), but that would not give enough credit to Hollandse who simply wanted to win from the start. They deserved to hang on to the lead and the Swiss seriously need to go back to the drawing board and re-think the attitude - or else it will become a very long second half of the season....

Congratulations to Hollandse for a very solid team performance!
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