Match Review: Swiss FC vs German-Swiss All Stars

• MD Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane
• MD Joel Terrades
• -- Ntoudi Mouyelo-Katoula
• -- Benjamin Bringuier
• -- Heinz Braegger
• -- Hassen Kared
• -- Simone Bobbia
• -- Topher Stokkmo
• -- Edu Ciffre
• -- Joe Giani
• -- Cedric Deschamps

• DF Muhammad Fadhil
• DF Laurent Brutsch
• -- Urs Brutsch
• -- Takayasu Yamamoto

Not meant to be

The plate semi-final was the last opportunity for Swiss FC to salvage something from a season which went from bad to worse. And for once, the Swiss showed up for the game. A return of Simone “ the rock” into the heart of defence made a huge difference. We kept it tight and did no concede until well into the second half. That is a new record for this season! The first half saw very few chances, GAS coming closest when Quirin’s shot went wide. Shortly after the break the Germans hit the crossbar, and only two minutes later the Swiss did the same: Hamza was on one of his powerful runs, took a shot from the edge of the box which hit the cross bar. But he followed up his own shot and headed the ball into the net for a Swiss lead. Swiss looked pretty good at that point and GAS were not able to create much danger in front of Joe’s goal. That was until Swiss gave away a cheap free-kick and the ball was floated over to the second post where a German stabbed home the ball. Swiss defenders were ball (and men) watching. 1:1 with 15 to go. But not much happened until full-time. Extra-time started with a blast: Laurent Brutsch, one week after turning 16, used his pace to go down the right flank, turned his defender and passed the ball to Joel, who beat a couple of defenders before rolling the ball into the net for another Swiss lead. Swiss looked in command at this point, but two individual mistakes gifted the Germans two opportunities. Michael converted both of them. Swiss legs were heavy and we were not able to create anything in the last 7 minutes of extra time. GAS advanced to the plate final. This was a game that Swiss FC should not have lost, but how many times did we say that this year? But at least we gave our neighbours a good fight in a game which was (almost always) played in the right spirit. Good luck to GAS in the final, and the good news for the Swiss is that there are only two games left….one of them against GAS….

• Rudi Winkelhofer GK
• Takahiro Kawabata DF
• Quirin Regensburger MD
• Victor Walz --
• Juergen Stich --
• Florian Gädke --
• Phillip Von Pein --
• Mauricio Roa --
• Bastian Wolff --
• Michael Klemm --
• Teo Premto --

• Marius Teich DF
• Georgios Paparas --

Last step to go

Before the match started our team was facing some unexpected player drops whereby the 13 listed players according to the titel "just the strongest survive" faced the fight of the semi finals in the Championship. Starting minutes were promising as the opponent didn't have clear chances due to our solid and hard fighting Defense of Teo and Pipo, who were covered by the CDM Flo. (side fact: 96% of all air balls in the entire game landed on this man's head). Just few poor distance shots could reach our goal where our keeper Louis just could laugh about. The German Allstars showed from the beginning that they want to have the cup as league went terribly bad! The first half was represented with many Long shots to our strikers micha (ST) and Basti (CMA) ending often in nowhere. A great pass of Basti to the CM Viktor should have been the first goal of the day but was safes by the keeper in an excellent manner. We skip to talk about the chance of the frustrated Micha who should have scored with a header after a great assist of RM Quirin who forced 3 opponents to their knees. Second have started promising and due to several combinations through Mauricio (LM) and Taka (LB) but they couldn't find our striker as he has been sleeping at this time. As Football is never predictable the Swiss needed an individual mistake which our RB Jürgen could provide by missing the ball while trying to clear he missed it because a fly flew in his eye. This not enough, the Swiss striker could just hit the crossbar in the first attempt, but headed it luckily in with the returning ball. Our team started now to act even more offensive and several chances from Basti, Quirin, the Greek sub Georgi and a crossbar hit from 2m distance were the signals of not giving up. Finally a cross from Taka led through Flo the tower to the draw and extra time. Starting badly, somehow, unexpected and never been able to be marked by Viktor as the Swiss player just appeared, the Swiss got the lead. The new sub Marius gave good impulses from the back with his freshness whereby Micha started now noticing in the 101min that game is on and he is on the pitch. The full blood striker used the next excellent cross from Taka and the marked easily the 2:2. Due to the fitness of the German Allstars which comes from the good participation on training sessions on Tuesdays, our team wanted to have the win. Several good chances and a flood of attacking attempts were unlucky, but the recently awoken Micha received the ball at the opponents box and just chipped the ball in a coolness manner you haven't seen and marked the winning goal of 3:2! After that he went back to bed.