Match Review: TGA Rangers FC vs German-Swiss All Stars

• DF Hiromitsu Nakaue
• DF Chris Jones
• DF Fraser Anderson
• DF Jordan Laing
• MD Paddy Sutton
• MD Stephen McLaughlin
• ST Aaron Clancey-Agius
• ST Salvatore Adaldo
• ST Mike Sharples
• -- Rob Whitworth
• -- Gianluca Franchetto

• GK Bernd Schiele
• DF Dan Ousby
• DF Taishi Fukuda
• MD Victor Felicia
• MD Eneko Goya Lujambio

Glücklich Rangers? Ist es magisch?

Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening One & All, Welcome to the Rangers match report. After last week, we knew we had to follow up with another victory. Despite the form of the Germans, there is never any question of their ability to do a job on you if you let them into the game. They are physical with quality across the park. Rangers knew they had to be on it to try get something out of this. With Nathan heading to Shanghai for a romantic weekend for 2 he purchased on Fave, to JC in Bangkok doing what it is you do when you go to Bangkok, it was always going to be a busy afternoon. The whole aspect of "Suns out, guns out" is nonsense at 3pm on a Sat at turf when its 45 degrees. I actually could smell the shirts cooking at the handshake. Anyways, should get back to this report. I'm avoiding it, as really there was not much in the game. It had a few challenges, a couple of yellows that were deserved, but there was no real quality in the last 3rd from either team in terms of clean cut chances. We welcomed Salvo back for his bi-annual appearance on a Saturday, but even with the Italian Stallion, we could not get going. The game at times, did seem end to end. Both teams comfortable keeping the ball in their own half, but then trying to turn defence to attack was often cut out by both sides. To be fair, in the first 20, Rangers were not connecting much at all and the water break came at a good time for us. We re-grouped, got the water onboard then went back out to up the energy. Look to press more and get Sharples the ball to feet to turn and get at them. In the air, the Germans were managing it all day, so to feet was always going to be the route to success. With Sharples being frustrated with the quality of service, he came deep to pick up a scrappy head down at around the half way line. From there, he turned, head down and the rest is on Facebook & Instagram, however, what a goal. The guy is playing with confidence and absolute no question he is looking back to his lethal best. Credit where credit is due, it has been a long road back for Sharples after the injury and I think many would say they would much rather be playing with him than against him at the moment. Quality strike from an outstanding player. After that, we got to half time. We started the second half ok, had a couple of chances but nothing too clean cut. Victor came on in the right and made some delicious balls in from the right, just not having anyone on the end. Dan came on to shore up the middle of the park, a job he does extremely well. The strength in depth is looking to be there for Rangers and it is something we need to compete at the top end of the table. Not much more to say, tough game, we got the break and I think we take the 3 points knowing it could have been very different on another day. Looking forward now to the French before our mid-season break. Thanks to the Germans and we look forward to the next time out. Cheers Steve

• Daniel Grueber DF
• Diyar Mailepessov ST
• Arnaud Houles --
• Victor Walz --
• Phillip Von Pein --
• Bastian Keller --
• Florian Gädke --
• Teo Premto --
• Jan Wiechmann --
• Benny Sattelmaier --
• Joe Giani --

• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Mauricio Roa --
• Steffen Schacher --
• Mishel Knezovic --

Merry Christmas!

The game against Rangers started at 3pm, GSAS had a solid team despite the lack off few key players due to travel and injuries. Playing against the top team in the league, GSAS started the game with high intensity supported by a solid defense. It was unlucky that Bastian got injured again very early in the game. After shuffling the squad, the water break was more than welcome under this burning sun. Nonetheless this break hasn’t been beneficial for us, where we saw a break happening between the lines. Rangers jumped on this opportunity to score the first and only goal of this opposition with a precise shot well before the box. We haven’t been able to transform any of the few immersions in the rangers’ box. The second half was a simple continuity of what we saw happening earlier, having GSAS really pushing in the last 15min to try to equalise, unsuccessfully. It’s been a tough game, enjoyable with a fair referee.