Match Review: German-Swiss All Stars vs Singapore Vikings FC

• DF Alex Baesel
• MD Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane
• MD Nick Hennies
• ST Anthony Wilson
• ST Diyar Mailepessov
• -- Ronny Morack
• -- Mishel Knezovic
• -- Bastian Keller
• -- Florian Gädke
• -- Jan Wiechmann
• -- Joe Giani

• GK Florent Caupin
• DF Matthias Bertl
• DF Marius Teich
• DF Laurent Brutsch
• -- Lorenzo Crescenti

Powerful Vikings too strong for GAS

After a 2-weeks break, GAS faced a powerful Vikings team on Saturday afternoon at perfect football weather. Starting with a 4:4:2 formation, GAS was pressured early deep in their own half and could not keep up with the pace Vikings brought on the pitch. Individual mistakes and Vikings’ skilled striker Melechovsky led to a 0:2 halftime result. With changing sites, GAS’ came back with great attitude, scored the 1:2 through Anthony, and was suddenly back in the game. The Vikings, however, proofed to be too strong on this day and quickly responded with goals by Melechovsky and Busser to a 1:4 end result. GAS say thanks to referee Syed Ibrahim, his team, and the Vikings for the fair game and wishes them good luck for the rest of the season.

• Henrik Synnes DF
• Matthias Berthelsen DF
• Casper Toennesen MD
• Thomas Domino Andersen MD
• Ales Melechovsky ST
• Rene Jessen --
• Tjalfe Paulsen --
• Jules Busser --
• Michael Thomsen --
• Magnus Mernild --
• Mark Van Dalen --

• Magnus Walling Hansen DF
• Mark Crouch --
• Mark James Raven --
• Michael Jorgensen --
• Marko Samora --

Back to Winning Ways!

An extremely powerful Vikings team proved far to strong for a game GSAS side down at Turf City on Sat eve. The weather was absolutely perfect and Vikings were highly intent on making amends for the previous week's performance against the men of Aioli. The chat had been busy all week about the need to be at the pace of the game from the start and that it was vitally important that we get back to winning ways. Domino came armed with a newly choreographed warm up and by the time the Viking contingent had started to emerge in the stands our chosen eleven were fully charged to take the game to our European counterparts. Vikings starting format was slightly altered to account for the in-coming Thomsen and Busser, and with Drags currently gallivanting the globe it was time to call on the seasoned pro Rene to fill between the sticks. Our plan was to stifle our opponents early by pressing them deep in their own half and not allowing them any time to settle into their preferred playing style. Immediately from the kick GSAS were penned back and our front four and accompanying midfield dictated all that was good in the game. Mele and Thomsen, both pacey and strong, posed real difficulty for the men in white and the latter really should have opened the scoring on 15 minutes when he found himself clear in the box but his resulting snapshot rose agonisingly over the bar. A few half chances presented themselves and Domino and Casper continually pulled the strings while Tjalfe was an ever-willing outlet for the team. Henrock seemed intent on not having his pocket picked two weeks running and proved a tower of strength alongside the man mountain Mathias. Magnus Hansen had been called upon early in the game to fill in for the injured Mernild and he proved more than a match for the powerful running strikers of GSAS. Around the 30 minute mark the ball found its way wide left to the feet of Mele and as he quickly turned away from the tall centre half he raced effortlessly clear on goal and stuck the ball way beyond the keeper to give us a much deserved lead. Better was to come a few minutes later when a super flick on from Thomsen set our Czech goal scorer free and what followed was simply breath taking - Mele contorted his body one way and then the other before unleashing an absolute beast of a strike which I think any keeper in the world would have had trouble keeping out - both Viking support and that of the Gaelic and Hotspur guys, who were still in attendance after their afternoon clash, looked astonished as to the quality of the goal. This doubling of our lead seemed to deflate GSAS and it was apparent that the half time whistle was greatly received by them. Delighted at our effort and execution of our game plan we knew that we needed to maintain this level of performance after the break and, just like so many Cosmo games of the past, the next goal would prove pivotal. GSAS reworked their set up and finally started to get something of a foothold in the game - Bastian Keller, who was tough tackling and committed all afternoon, tried desperately to get his guys firing. Mele once again turned his marker and angled in on goal only to see his shot being denied by the GSAS keeper - a third goal here and it would have been goodnight . However, after 15 min of the second period a searching ball down the throat of our central defence was not dealt with and the resulting half cross was prodded in past the stranded Jessen - I for one had certainly not seen this coming. For 5-10 min we appeared a little agitated, perhaps even nervous, and there was just a hint of a comeback on the cards. Fortunately, that's as close as the game ever got as we again created a wonderful chance for Mele to notch his third and he duly obliged. Unfortunately, Mele had to leave the pitch shortly after as he clashed heavily with the GSAS keeper when trying to get on the end of another through ball - hoping for a speedy recovery so that he can be ready for the challenge of Gaelic next week. Our fourth goal was an early contender for goal of the season, with some marvellous interplay between our midfield trio of Casper, Domino and Tjalfe which ended when the latter player crossed handsomely for our young gun Busser to hit the net. GSAS never gave in and pushed hard to get back into it but often found that all avenues were closed or well marshalled by the impressive Rene. The game played out and we secured the points to get back to winning ways. Thanks to GSAS for being a really sporting bunch who were very gracious in defeat and thanks to ALL the guys from Vikings and other clubs who hung out to watch the game - felt like a special Cosmo Saturday eve! On we go!