Match Review: FC Nippon vs German-Swiss All Stars

• GK Takaki NAKAMURA
• DF Katsumi Oku
• MD Hiroki NARABAYASHI
• MD Ryuhei IKEDA
• MD Seiji TACHIBANA
• ST Takuya Hagino
• -- Rui Suzuki
• -- Jun Nishiyama
• -- Ryota MURAKI
• -- Takuya Matsushima
• -- Masaki Tanaka

• GK Kento Joko
• DF Osamu Akao
• -- Kei Iwashita

Seesaw game

German Swiss grabbed the opening goal in the early first half by a great shoot right outside of the penalty zone while Nippon soon got an equaliser from a free kick also right outside of the penalty zone. The game then became a seesaw game with no scores for a long u til the last 5 minutes when German Swiss managed to get the second goal from a short counter attack. Well played!

• Florent Caupin GK
• Peter Farfeleder DF
• Gullzar Khan MD
• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Diyar Mailepessov ST
• Mark Addy ST
• Julian Sander ST
• Alain von Wattenwyl --
• Raphael Bissig --
• Andy Distelmans --
• Florian Aubert --

• Erik Zenker --
• Adrian Stangl --
• Nic De Clerk --

First 3 points of the season

From the first moment on GSAS was very dominant - very different than last week vs Vikings - with Mark and Andy putting the defenders under pressure with Julian and Alain waiting for the interceptions in the center. We created a couple of chances and it was a matter of time till we would score the leading goal which Alain did after around 15min with a beautiful volley in the corner. After that we decided to be slightly less offensive, which Nippon immediately made use of and seemingly always outnumbered us in the center and we were quite lucky with one crossbar and one goal post not to concede the equalizer. Slightly more stabilized, we created more chances through Florian and Mark who however remained unconverted...it wasn't Mark's day it seemed after he had scored 4 goals in our friendly vs Nippon 2 weeks ago. Shortly before halftime Nippon had a free-kick just infront of the box. The ball was deflected by the wall and as Florent (who helped out in goal and showed a fantastic performance as backup) was already in the other corner and had to watch the ball rolling over the line in slow-motion...very unlucky yet not undeserved. At halftime we made some tactical changes which worked out very well. The entire second half was under our control not allowing Nippon a single chance, but were very inefficient with our chances...a must-score chance from Florian as well as others from Andy, Mark and Julian remained unused and it wasn't until 85min when Adrian brought the ball into the center and Julian hammered the ball under the crossbar, 2:1. In the last minute a long ball from Nippon could have nearly costed us the winner, but Florent was there once again to save the day. Big kudos to the entire team for a great performance, especially the 3 subs Nic, Erik and Adrian who seamlessly fitted and without whom we couldnt have won it, and of course our MoM Golden Hand Florent. Thanks to the refs and Nippon for a very fair match!