Match Review: Swiss FC vs TGA Rangers FC

• DF Cyrill Binder
• DF Nice De Mello
• MD Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane
• MD Paul Le Helloco
• -- Joe Giani
• -- Andrew Koechie
• -- Herwan Nulhaqiem
• -- Matty Mbuale
• -- Hilo Fujimoto
• -- Gordon Cyr
• -- Ivan Gomez

• DF Laurent Brutsch
• -- Winnie Holthuizen
• -- Takayasu Yamamoto
• -- Urs Brutsch

Sharp(les) Rangers punish Swiss mistakes

Fantastic conditions to play football on Friday night. Swiss had good memories from the first game against Rangers, when we held them to a draw for 75 minutes, so the plan was to do better today. With a slightly changed formation with Hakim as the sweeper in front of the back four, the Swiss looked pretty solid in the beginning. Rangers had more possession, but the back four stood firm. Whatever came through ended up safely in Joe's arms. We knew that Sharples can't be given an inch of space, but it was him who opened the scoring with a clinical finish just before the half hour. Hamza just minutes earlier had a great opportunity, but he did not realize that he had more time to control the cross from Hilo. 1:0 Rangers at the break. The second half started evenly, but it was Rangers who scored again first on 59 minutes. A lame call for offside did not come (and it probably should not have come) and it was again Sharples who finished. Then came the best period for the Swiss. We had shots by Gordon, Paul (2) and Hamza cleared, before the ball bounced around in the box for Hamza to pounce onto the loose ball and bring the Swiss back into the game. 2:1 and game on! But for only 90 seconds, as a very sloppy pass gifted Rangers the 3rd goal. Swiss continued to push to get back into the game, but three goals in the last seven minutes made for a brutal scoreline. For as long as we can't put a performance together for 90 minutes, and cut out our silly mistakes (we conceded three goals where we were in possession of the ball, only to lose it stupidly and then get caught on the quick counter attack), we will not get points on the board. And we should also learn to control our emotions better. And not to get sucked into trash talk with the opponent. One of them was particularly good at it, offering our captain a kiss. Cheap. (for the record, our captain refused to be kissed).

• Kevin Slack DF
• Hiromitsu Nakaue DF
• Jordan Laing DF
• Chris Jones DF
• Fraser Anderson DF
• Nathan Bryer MD
• Mike Sharples ST
• Salvatore Adaldo ST
• Chris Fowler --
• Rob Whitworth --
• Kosuke Uchida --

• Taishi Fukuda DF
• Sonny Kirton MD

Keep calm and let's share some fondue.....

Hi Everyone, Just another manic Monday, I wish it was Sunday, 'cause that's my fun day, my I don't have to run day, it's just another manic Monday! With that, Rangers turned up on Friday, which has no co-relation to the opening Monday aspect. Irregardless, as is becoming the norm, we hate a warm up. Rather just turn up at Kick-Off and wish for the best...... The game started rather evenly, although not much goal mouth action for Chris in the Rangers net. Rangers started with a strong attacking intent with Sharples, Salvo and Fraser all deployed in forward roles looking to stretch the Swiss backline and play with intensity that would eventually open up opportunities. There is no question that we were scrappy, we had a few strong challenges but to be honest, everything was done with no harm intended. The focus was fully on the 3 points. We apologise to the Swiss for any offence cause by the kissing instance. It was highly immature and the said culprit has been fined 2 cans of Tiger. Not much to write about as most of you have probably saw Sharples Facebook post about his 4 goals. There were another couple from Fraser and Salvo (which was a fantastic team goal). Shout out to Sonny making his debut, looked assured on the ball and we are excited to see more as he gets a few more games under his belt. We are under no illusions, yes we scored 6, but it has to be said we were by no means at our best and with the quarter final coming up next week, we need to be stepping it up. We showed periods of quality, that is obviously encouraging but with the quarter final next week and Gaelics thereafter, we will see how good we believe we are then and look to step up to compete well for a result on both occasions. It is the big games where the judgement is made and those are the games where players will be spoken of. We take the win, we move on but we all still know we have to rise again for the run in that is ahead. Thanks to the Swiss for a good fair game and all the best for the remainder of the season.