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

• DF Taishi Fukuda
• DF Hiromitsu Nakaue
• DF Chris Jones
• DF Fraser Anderson
• DF Jordan Laing
• MD Ryan Shanter
• MD Jim Goudie
• MD Paddy Sutton
• ST Mike Sharples
• ST Salvatore Adaldo
• -- Gianluca Franchetto

• MD Victor Felicia
• -- Eugen Chaljavin

After a cool morning and a 5pm kick off ahead, the prospect of playing a game in less than 35 degrees seemed to be on the cards. Sadly the sun came out and the conditions at kick off were brutal! Neverless the team talk centred around imposing our game and intensity on an in form german team. With Nate swanning about in Cornwall on a fishing trip and JC struck down by a mid week bug a quick re shuffle was needed. Salvo got pre warning of a starting spot and assured the manager he would keep his dancing shoes locked up until Saturday night. He positively bounced into the warm up despite not heeding the advice in any way, in hindsight no way the italian stallion was going to listen.... The first half was a tight affair with a fair few missed placed passed from both teams. After a couple of decent half chances, we finally went ahead. Nice build up down the left with Salvo flicking on to Paddy who crossed to the far post for a tap in for Sharpy who was struggling a touch post landing that morning from the UK. 1-0 and we should have gone on from there. Unfortunately Germans went straight up the other end and scored with a bullet header from a corner. Poor marking from us but a great finish. Lots of huffing and puffing and we won a penalty after a handball from their CB i think. Jordy picked up the ball confidently. However echoing memories of a few seasons ago vs 1TM he duly despatched the ball comfortably over the bar. H-T 1-1. The second half was always going to be a tight and tense affair. Neil was struggling with a dodgly calf, Vic came on and added some pace on the left. Tackles starting flying in alongside some diving reminiscent of Tom Daly ala London 2012. Out of nowhere Salvo brushed off his friday night exploits and ran on to a loose backpass and deftly lobbed their onrushing keeper from a tight angle. Lovely finish. With the final water break upon us we brought out Eugene in CM with Jordy having put in a solid shift in CM. Some scary moments ensued with a few half chances falling to the Germans up top. Another corner almost brought them an equaliser but luckily the ball found the side netting. We finally managed to kill the game off with non other than our very own German finishing nicely after a parried stop from a fierce sharpy drive. Great effort from all involved especially with only two subs available. With SCC drawing again we stretched our lead at the top to a heady 12 points! Cheers for the game Ze Germans. Good luck for the rest of the season.

• Takahiro Kawabata DF
• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Quirin Regensburger MD
• Diyar Mailepessov ST
• Victor Walz --
• Benjamin Eigner --
• Joe Giani --
• Florian Gädke --
• Mishel Knezovic --
• Phillip Von Pein --
• Jan Wiechmann --

• Laurent Brutsch DF
• Iskandar Björn Radewaldt MD
• Arnaud Houles --
• Benny Sattelmaier --

One more to go...

The German Swiss Allstars came together to face top of the league team – The Rangers. After 4 undefeated matches, the team was quite confident to steal some points and keep the title race open. The game started with the 5pm heat and made the game quite challenging for both teams. During the first 20 minutes there were some chances on both sides, but not really dangerous either. After some lack of concentration from the German defense, Ranger’s kicked in a nice cross to the second post, and the unmarked league’s top striker had no problems to score the first goal of the match. A few minutes later, the ref called a handball which was actually somewhere between arm and shoulder. It was a difficult situation to evaluate and also the video assistant referee siting in some office at Raffles Place couldn’t help as his live stream broke down. Anyways, the Ranger’s kicker hit the ball wide over the cross bar. ISS astronauts confirmed on sunday that the ball only missed them by a little and is on its way to the moon. This gave the Allstars a slight tail wind and they managed to equalize after a corner with a bullet header of their top striker into the top right corner. After half time the German-Swiss came back motivated and put their “Deutsche Tugenden” into the game to take over the lead, but no clear chances appeared. Same on the other side with the Rangers that only occasionally made it to finish, and if so, the goalie had some great saves. The German-Swiss defense had a good day and managed to keep the strong Ranger strikers under their control until German center back headed too shortly to the goalie and a striker got in between and lifted the ball over the goalkeeper with a fine touch. While the Allstars didn’t give up and hoped to equalize, the last goal’s striker showed his talent in Italian acting. With the slightest touch he went to the ground pretending to die. Seriously concerned the allstars called an emergency helicopter, which had to be cancelled as the Ranger striker was already on the field again running around like a race horse. This situation repeated a few times. The German-Swiss had a few more chances. The clearest one was a header by the german striker onto the outside of the net. The match now was characterized by rough challenges on both sides and exchange of some nice words. In the end the Ranger’s marked the last goal of the match when the allstars put everything on front to mark a goal. The Rangers turned out to be the more effective and mature team. The Allstars congratulate the Rangers for the game and already for the title, as the German-Swiss themselves play the SCC in their last match and are confident to win.