Match Review: Singapore Football Club vs German-Swiss All Stars

• DF Collins Mbeutcha
• DF Jack Cullinane
• MD Tim Walter
• ST Liam Shotton
• -- Andrew Hutcheon
• -- Ross Plain
• -- Rob Benson
• -- Simon Lloyd
• -- Ross Macklin
• -- Akil Pompey
• -- Kelly Williams

• MD Anthony Garreau
• -- Matt Hulen
• -- Matt McCole

SFC march on

Sporting a sparkling new away kit, Singapore Football Club fought back from a goal down against a resilient German-Swiss All-Stars team, to continue their 100% win record. Kicking off at 3 pm at Turf City, SFC should have found themselves 2 or 3 goals up, after just 10 minutes. Instead, having created a host of opportunities for themselves, the first goal of the afternoon was registered by the home side. The German & Swiss All-Stars taking their first clear chance well, leaving Kelly Williams no chance. G&S All-Stars 1 SFC 0, 20 minutes played. It was unclear whether the unfamiliar red and black uniform was behind the lack of incision for the Singapore Football Club players, but 1-0 to G&S All-Stars was how it remained as the two teams went into the break. The start of the second half, following some minor tweaks in formation, finally saw many of the SFC players come to life. Liam Shotton brushing defenders off with ease and testing the G&S backline frequently, as the pressure for G&S All-Stars started to build. A well-executed training ground routine in the 55th minute, by Ross Macklin, finally saw SFC score as Tim Walter pounced for the equaliser. The newlywed’s muted celebrations, against his old teammates, a reflection of how much this game meant to him. G&S All-Stars 1 SFC 1. Having drawn level, the shackles came off, and SFC began to swarm forward regularly. Matt McCole causing all sorts of problems for the home team down the flanks, whilst the combination of Collins Mbeutcha and Tim Walter started steadily to grind down the G&S midfield. The pressure continued to mount, and SFC’s second goal was courtesy of an own goal from the All-Stars. Akil Pompey’s excellent cross seemed to panic the G&S defender, as he knocked the ball into the back of his own net, to make it 2-1 to SFC. With their opponents’ heads appearing to drop, SFC then continued to attack at will. Scottish warhorse, Andrew Hutcheon scored the third with a trademark back post diving header, before Ross Plain decided to put things beyond doubt. Plain had looked dangerous all afternoon and took his chance well. Cutting in from the wing he proceeded to bury his shot low and hard past the despairing keeper. A great second-half performance from Singapore Football Club. Final Score: G&S All-Stars 1 SFC 4. After the game, all eyes (and legs) promptly turned to the bigger game of the afternoon for Singapore Football Club, down at Dempsey Field. Man of the Match, for Singapore Football Club, goes to Akil Pompey for a Rolls-Royce smooth afternoon; remaining unperturbed throughout the 90minutes. Ross Macklin and Domina also get strong mentions too. Thank you to Urs, Quirin and all the German & Swiss All-Stars for an entertaining and committed game of football. All the best in your games ahead.

• Florent Caupin GK
• Takahiro Kawabata DF
• Alex Baesel DF
• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Diyar Mailepessov ST
• Arnaud Houles --
• Nico Bretzinger --
• Bastian Wolff --
• Jan Wiechmann --
• Mark Leonhardt --
• Florian Gädke --

• Laurent Brutsch DF
• Leandro Schütte ST
• Ronny Morack --
• Lorenzo Crescenti --

Good: Haze level back to bearable level / Bad: Unnecessary Defeat for GSAS vs. SFC

Facing one of the strongest teams in the league, GSAS coaches were lucky to choose the starting eleven from a very strong squad this Saturday. Knowing about the strong bench and the strength of SFC gave the team quite a boost to perform well. And indeed we managed to keep the game at least leveled in the first half, not allowing many chances for SFC and meanwhile producing some nice foot- and at times even artwork in the center mid, led by Nico backed up by Jan and Alex. They were the key to success and able to keep SFC’s center mids busy, often breaking through the middle of the park. One of such combos was picked up excellently by Hamza producing a perfect cross from within the box to Arnauld who decisively scored a cracker with his head. Straight to top corner, impossible to defend for keeper and fullback. 1-0 half time. Smelling blood, we were now eager to overtake SFC in the league table. And after they started aggressively and well into the second half, we brought fresh legs and were again able to bring the game to a higher level and to produce a couple of further good chances in order to add more goals to our tally. Unfortunately, all missed. Shortly before the second water break SFC equalized out of nowhere and you could feel their relief in the air. After we missed a couple of further chances to take the lead again, we were beaten for the second time. Again literally out of nowhere. Being so close to a win, our heads admittedly dropped. While we were now risking more, SFC scored two further, now well produced goals and sealed their win. Thanks to the referees who managed the game well without distributing many cards. Sometimes strange, but this policy was consistent throughout the game for both sides. Well done. Also thanks and congrats to SFC for a fair and highly competitive game. It is nice to see you building up well-educated young talents and putting trust into them. With your killing instinct and in parallel growing your youngsters you can go a long way this season. Good luck and looking forward to the rematch