Match Review: Gaelic Lions FC vs German-Swiss All Stars

• DF Hans Van Den Hoogen
• DF Liam McGinley
• MD Chris Leighton
• MD Stephen Swords
• MD Adam Smith
• MD Dom Marwood
• ST Daiki Ishino
• ST Sean Flanagan
• -- Chris Keay
• -- Shailer Thomas
• -- Rob Church

• DF
• ST Kazuki Sato-Brennan
• -- James Blythe

A wild one

A wild night for the rare mid-week game. Lions came out and had the better of things first 20. GSAS rode the storm however and started to get a foothold in the game and got clean through on one of their first attacks to go 1 up. Was 2-0 quite quickly after that, lions gave away a free kick in a dangerous position and a good delivery was put away by GSAS. Groundhog night for the lions and despite a good start we were back in our now standard 2-0 whole. Lions with the bulk of the possession but also looking leeky at the back and GSAS unlucky not to have added to their total with some clear one on ones going the right side of the post for us. A lifeline on the stroke of half time. Liam Mc Ginley who had hit a few beautiful balls to GSAS back post and finally it got what its deserved with a brilliant finish from Daiki getting his first goal for the club. 2-1 at the half and if we could just sort things out at the back we knew we were well capable of getting a result in this game. Some old school Jackie Charlton ball from the Lions brought the equaliser early in the second half. Shailer went long, Swordsy battled and also had the composure to then stick one in the corner whilst holding off the GSAS defender, a tactically basic goal but a brilliant finish from Stephen who was top class for the Lions all night. Lions remained on top and forced a dangerous free kick. Chris Leighton duly stepped up and gave the keeper no chance with the ball going in of the side of the post 3-2 and from here it looked like only one winner. GSAS never gave up mind and kept going. They got their equaliser from another Gaelic mess at the back and really should have won the game last minute when clean through with 2 GSAS attackers V's Shailer. Thankfully for us Shailer had another of his magic moments up his sleeve and won the ball brilliantly as the GSAS striker tried to round him. Despite a chaotic game the lions had some great performances, Liam Mc Ginley a standout at the back, Daiki was a handful all night and the midfield trip top notch as always, but a deserved MOM goes to Swordsy. GSAS had a few stars of their own but I think their striker bagged all 3 so an easy decision there.

• Florent Caupin GK
• Matthias Bertl DF
• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Diyar Mailepessov ST
• Mark Addy ST
• Said Addi --
• Nikolai Von Schlippe --
• Joseph Sanderson --
• Raphael Bissig --
• Erik Zenker --
• Florian Aubert --

• Florian Reidt DF
• Marius Teich DF
• Gullzar Khan MD
• Rupinderjeet Singh Dhillon --

Another high scoring draw for GSAS

After the 3:3 against Hotspurs in the last game, GSAS wanted to build on that. Match preparation for the early Wednesday night kick-off was not ideal, as Mark arrived late with the kit bag. He made up for it later, but we’ll come to that. The first 20 minutes were all Gaelic. They controlled the game and the ball, but did not really threaten Said in goal. As the game went on, GSAS grew into the match and when Nikolai sent Mark on one of his trademark runs, there was only one possible outcome: he buried the ball in the far corner. 1:0 GSAS, against the run of play. But that goal gave GSAS confidence and soon Mark doubled his tally, when he connected with a smart header from a peach of a freekick from Florian Aubert. Mark and Florian A had two great opportunities to finish off the game, but both went just wide, with the GK beaten. 2:0 at the break, or so we thought. Gaelic floated a long ball into the box and somehow the Gaelic striker was forgotten. Clinical finish and the coach had to change the half-time talk. Nobody dared to bring up the Cup game where we were leading 4:1 with 15 minutes to go, only to be beaten 4:5. But legs started to wobble when Gaelic equalized shortly after the break. A long kick from the GK allowed the striker to walk both central defenders. To be fair, his finishing was excellent, but he should never have been able to be there in the first place…. And things got worse. A soft free-kick was given, and the dispatch was divine. No chance at all for Said in goal. It looked like “déjà vu”, but that’s when the team showed great determination, and the reward followed when Mark robbed one of the defenders of the ball, and made no mistake. 3:3. When everyone was waiting for Rob’s whistle, Mark and Khan suddenly found themselves alone with only the GK to beat. Maybe too much time, too much space, or too much thinking. Anyway, bottom-line is that the GK saved brilliantly and Rob blew the whistle. Was it a point gained or two points dropped? Both teams probably felt the same way, so let’s go with the result being a fair reflection of the game overall. Gaelic had more ball possession, GSAS the better chances. MOM: GSAS obviously Mark Addy, Gaelic: Adam Smith A good competitive Cosmo league game, no dirty tackles, played in the right spirit. Thanks to Rob and crew for keeping it well together.