GOAL
Zafar Evren

DEFENSE
Hermann Bergmann
Rino Binder
Denis Mecklenburg
Philipp Rode

MIDFIELD
Thomas Berner
Marcus Heerlein
Jens Taubken
Dennis Thun
Philipp von Pein

STRIKER
Volker Giebitz

SUBS
Franz Lanthaler
Markus Dolenga
Rene Schieber
Florian Schmidt

 With the Oktoberfest in full swing, a loss to spoil the party later on that day was not supposed to be an option for the Germans. Yet, with key players injured (captain Micha, Sascha) or absent (Madse) die Mannschaft was facing a tall order against 2nd from the top, Vikings.

Stand-in coach Sascha choose a defensive 4-5-1 line-up, trying to keep things tight in midfield and man-marking the Viking playmaker and goalgetter Sorensen. However, the Germans started not at all organized, allowing the Vikings to score an early one, courtesy of rather hesitant defending: 0-1 after two minutes.

Subsequently, the match became somewhat more balanced with GAS starting to create opportunities. Yet, the Vikings' lightning speed attacks over the wings remained a constant threat. After 18 minutes they could have been two up, had their #15 scored with only Zafar to beat. He missed by a few inches.

Encouraged by a now increasingly lackluster German performance the Vikings piled up the pressure, mostly over the right wing where the GAS defense looked very much exposed. Another close miss after 27 minutes should have served as a final warning. But what followed was not the badly needed more combative attitude amongst the Germans, but a nice individual effort by Sorensen to make it 0-2. That was the half-time score.

More bite was requested during the halftime talk. Referee and players, obviously, had a different view as to how "more bite" should be interpreted: after a short scrap between Hermann and the Viking playmaker both players were shown the red card. This looked like a harsh decision.

Barely 60 seconds later our opponents created the next scoring opportunity, but Zafar produced a superb safe. On the hour mark, however, Zafar stood no chance when a Viking striker converted expertly after a corner kick wasn't cleared off the box: 0-3.

Smelling victory the Vikings now took their feet off the accelerator, allowing GAS to push the game into the Viking half. However, the inevitably resulting opportunities, including a nice header from Pipo, all missed the goal. And so It took until the last minute of the game for the Germans to get their goal when Florian converted a nice cross from Jens to make it 1-3.

This was too little, too late, though. With the second defeat in a row the GAS team now faces the danger of slipping into the mid-table after a promising start into the campaign. Surely a lot of hard work needs to be done to prevent exactly that from happening.

Congrats to the Vikings who were the better side today and deserved their win.

Florian Schmidt