1st Match and 1st Win for the AKITA Team against HKIE

On Saturday 15th, November the AKITA Handball team defeated the Hong Kong Institute of Education 24 -12 (13 - 5). AKITA started with a strong seven, from left to right: Markus (17), Norbert (10), Ulf (20), Hans (14), Guillaume (3) with Alex (9) on the line and Wan (28) in the goal. The HKIE team won the toss and started with the ball. They lost no time and scored on their first action with a wing shot as the AKITA defense was still settling in. This immediately woke up the blue team that scored 4 unanswered goal with Hans scoring the first AKITA goal ever! After some good combination and cross between the half bases, AKITA was leading 6 - 3 on the 12th minute. The team was finding its rythm and and started few changes. On the right wing, Guillaume was replaced by his own brother PA (11). On the left wing Lars (78) and Yoann (5) entered. The AKITA team was playing it size advantage and only conceded 2 goals more by half time. One on a masked free kick and the other on a penalty. During that time, the goals were still adding with contribution from all positions. It was becoming obvious that the HKIE team was losing concentration as they were under pressure. At the half time, the score was 13 - 5. After a short coaching speech, the AKITA team was back on the pitch and commited to put the match away as soon as possible. Alex (9) was leaving his place to Markus (17) during the attack and Yoann (5) was on the left wing. The score moved to 20 - 6 in 10 minutes with Norbert scoring a powerful shot from the distance when referees were calling for slow play and Yoann answering an HKIE free kick goal by 2 successive hard fought goals. It was time for more changes for the gwailo team with Guillaume (3) back on the court and Rolf (12) getting some minutes under his belt after his ankle injury in the previous training. As the match seemed under control for AKITA the HKIE team tried to push forward engaging as fast as possible and even scoring few goals as the AKITA players were still in the other half. Too little too late here and the AKITA team could continue its turnover with Markus S. (17) participating in his first handball match ever and Lars (78) managing to get the 2nd 2minutes of the Match with 5 minutes to go on a good effort to stop a fast break. Hans (14) closed the scoring for AKITA with his 6th personal goal but as the team was coming back too slowly the HKIE team managed to have 3 players facing Wan with no defender. Wan had made some fine save including some on fast break but this was too many there and the final score was then 24 - 12. As a conclusion, it was a solid performance by AKITA with some good display in attack where goals were well distributed. (Hans 6, PA 5, Norbert 4, Alex 4 including 2/2 on penalties, Markus 2, Yoann 2, Ulf 1). In defense, there was little solution for the HKIE team as soon as the team was able to avoid the fast breaks. This was an ideal start for the AKITA campaign and will hopefully allow for further improvements as the season goes by.