Match Review: German-Swiss All Stars vs FC Nippon

• DF Marius Teich
• DF Matthias Bertl
• DF Peter Farfeleder
• MD Adrian Peterhans
• MD Gullzar Khan
• MD Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane
• ST Diyar Mailepessov
• -- Erik Zenker
• -- Nikolai Von Schlippe
• -- Dinh Lai
• -- Raphael Bissig

• MD Fadhil Abdul Latif
• ST Martin Reiher

Year ended with disappointment for GSAS

Like many teams these days, GSAS struggled with getting a good line up with sufficient number of players. But this is no excuse for a 6 pointer against Nippon, who has been doing well in the last weeks. GSAS started decently and put a lot of efforts in keeping ball possession and creating chances. Some sloppiness in GSAS defense allowed for an easy tap in for Nippon to go up 1:0 after only 10min. GSAS pulled one back and levelled with a fine and difficult to execute header by Nikolai. But the joy didn't last long after Nippon immediately took the lead again, which was the score at half-time. Good football followed in the second half and Peter scored to level again and giving hope for a 3 pointer. But Nippon was too clever and smart in their built-up, possession and counter attack and scored twice in a short period to make it 4:2 and undermining any hopes for GSAS for a comeback. Despite a 3:4 through a Hamza penalty, it was not supposed to be GSAS day.

• Tom Yoshida DF
• Katsumi Oku DF
• Yoshinori Kurata DF
• Hiroki NARABAYASHI MD
• Enrique Sanchez MD
• Takuya Hagino ST
• Nobu Honma --
• Jason CHUA --
• Jun Nishiyama --
• Kento Joko --
• Takuya Matsushima --

• Takaki NAKAMURA GK
• Tatsuya Hikosaka DF
• Oscar Lee ST
• Rui Suzuki --
• Seiya Yokoyama --

A rewarding victory

After getting multiple injuries from the recent games and with key players missing, Nippon had a difficult week to get a squad. Thanks to the members commitments, the situation got much better than the week before (when we only had 11 men to play the Gaelic). Still with a relatively small squad, the eleven started the game intentionally slowly. The team's strategy was to save energy and possess the ball in the first half without being too aggressive and turn offensive in the second half. Overall, this worked quite well. After the first ten minutes, Nippon got a chance from the left side and Jason squeezed in an opening goal from a beautiful grounder pass by Kike. The team controlled the ball well after the goal and didn't allow the Germans to create much threats. However, GSAS leveraged their left side and made many good runs beyond Nippon defence line. One of the runs led to an equaliser when the left midfielder delivered a beautiful cross and a great header punished Nippon for its slightly loose defense. This goal in the 44th minute was certainly painful, but Nippon stood strong and reacted beautifully. They made a few threats in the last minutes of the first half and Tom executed an amazing middle shot which allowed the Japanese eleven to get the lead again. 2-1 at half time. The Germans, however, came back to the game so solid in the second half. Nippon made some careless misses when building up and they didn't miss it. GSAS scored the second equaliser in the first 5 minutes (the right midfielder made a great run and smashed it in), and the game was 2-2. This was definitely discouraging but the team didn't lose their focus. They kept possessing the ball and leveraged their short passes to creat gaps in GSAS defense line. The 3rd goal was borne from a right side corner kick. Nippon was never known for strong headers and probably no one expected a goal from a corner kick, but this day was different. An excellent cross was delivered by the new joiner, Hiko, and Taku, the agile attacker, almost free, executed a perfect header which hit the left post and bounced into the goal net. 3-2. 5 minutes later, Kike attempted to enter the penalty area and the defender tripped him down which was judged to be a penalty. The Spanish new joiner punished GSAS for this foul and it became 4-2. Nippon thought this will determine the game, but the Germans stood strong as well. They made multiple opportunities from both sides associated with a few excellent shots which were almost on target, but thanks to the defenders tireless efforts, the team didn't allow a goal. However, one unintentional charge ended up being a foul in the penalty area and with 5 min left, the score became 4-3. The last 5 minutes was very tough for both sides. Nippon tried to possess and kill time while GSAS put all the energy on pressing and delivering the ball nearer to the goal. We all felt the last 5 minutes so long, especially when GSAS got a corner kick in additional time. In the end, the ref blew the whistle and Nippon managed to grab victory. Overall, super competitive game and both team played very well with good sportsmanship. Thanks to the referees who controlled the game with minimal cards. A special thanks as well to someone who cheered the team for 90 minutes right outside of the pitch. With his never ending chants, Nippon remained strong and were able to win the game. Kudos to Mr Unknown!