For its return to Choi Hung, the AKITA team was facing a significant rate of defections with Markus, Lars and Yoann suffering from sickness and Rolf, Alex and Guillaume also unavailable. In the starting seven, Dominik replaced Markus on the left wing whereas the other field positions remained as per last week with Ulf on the line and from left to right Stefan, Norbert, Hans and PA. The keepers decided to have Angus starting with Wan on the bench seating next to Michael, Nobel and Matsuo. PHOENIX is one of the team with a good experience in the league, they qualified for the promotion part of the championship but fade to finish 5th last year and will expect to go better this year.
PHOENIX started with the ball but their first 2 attacks were well controlled by the AKITA defence. As the usual top scorer of the team, it was no surprise to see Hans opening the score after 2 minutes, unfortunately some good goalkeeping and less precise than usual shooting prevented him from scoring more in that half. With Stefan also scoring only one in the first half, AKITA had to find some options away from halves shooting. The centre-line relationship was the favourite option with Norbert scoring 2 penalties obtained in the first 6 minutes and Ulf making the score 6 -1. Number 17, clearly the best player of the PHOENIX team on the day, managed a left wing shot and a penalty to come back but Ulf answered this first goal before giving a beautiful pass to Matsuo on the line to answer the second.
With the heat and humidity impacting the fitness of players, AKITA was trying to maximise the turnover. With 10 minutes to play PHOENIX was back at 7 - 5 which is when AKITA started to create wing opportunities. Michael who just came in on the left wings scored the first of 4 consecutive AKITA goals. Norbert found a way through the defence for a close range shot and PA squeezed through the tiniest gap a right wing shot. To conclude this good sequence, Michael scored again as he enjoyed a huge gap on the left wing as his defender mistimed an interception. PHOENIX number 14 managed to score 2 more whereas Norbert made it 4 in the first half to reach a 12 - 7 half time score.
The half time was mostly about recuperation and players were reminded to maintain the focus for the rest of the match. AKITA had 10 good minutes where they managed to widen the gap. PA and Norbert scored penalties to make it 14 -8 and Hans and Stefan found the targets for a 16 -9, the biggest gap of the match. As players were tired, the changes were a little wide as PA and Ulf were plugging the holes playing in different positions depending on who needed some rest. Also, the AKITA team was sloppier in defence and after 2 exclusions in the first half, they suffered another 4 in the second half. Dominik scored for a 18 - 12 lead but this was followed by 5 minutes with no goals allowing PHOENIX to come back to 4 goals only. This was the time for a well needed coaching time-out to ask players to slow down and survive the last 7 minutes. PHOENIX even came back to three but the AKITA team kept a cool head and Norbert took responsibility with a goal to restore a 4 goals advantage.
Unfortunately he got excluded on the following defence and this was followed by a red card for Dominik preventing a fast break that forced AKITA to be with 4 field players only for few moments. This was the time the referees took a pretty uncommon decision raising their hand for lack of play before even the restart following a goal because they found the keeper tool too much time to send the ball back to the centre. Unfortunately for PHOENIX, it resulted in the AKITA being extra motivated and PA immediately took a shot from 9 meters to put the match away from PHOENIX. Hans completed this with his 4th goal to make it 5 up with one to play. A last PHOENIX goal did not matter and the AKITA team was relieved to take the full points in a match that they made unnecessarily interesting up to the end.
The next match will also be outside but at an even more unfortunate time so most of today's players were hoping for a cool down of the weather.
Norbert 6, Hans 4, PA 3, Ulf 2, Michael 2, Stefan 2, Matsuo 1, Dominik 1.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
AKITA has a winning start 20 - 10 against DEMI in 2nd division
For the first day of the 2009-2010 championship, the federation had organised a special treat for teams participating as matches were played indoor in the Western Park Sports Centre. Despite Coach Banks being away for his honeymoon, AKITA was coming with a strong squad. Additionnally to Stefan available after an injury prevented him from playing last year, two new players joined AKITA for this first match. Matsuo from Japan plays in the field whereas Angus, a young Hong Kong prospect, will share the goalkeeper position with Wan. Ulf started on the line, with Markus on the left wing, Norbert in the centre, Stefan and Hans on the halves and PA on the right wing. Rolf, Guillaume, Yoann and Dominik were enjoying the air-con on the bench.
With Alex not there, AKITA opted for a 6-0 defense to try to maximise the height advantage and limit the play to the DEMI line. This allowed for a strong start with Ulf scoring the first goal of the new season on a fast break and AKITA conceding only 2 goals in the first quarter of the match. The fire power from the backs allowed for regular scoring and 3 goals from Hans added to goals from Stefan, Norbert and Ulf brought the score to 6 -2 after 12 minutes.
The DEMI team was running short of options and were looking for number 16, their half left, to find the opening. After being blocked on attempted jump and hip shots he managed to find the way to the wing through crosses and precise shooting. He scored three in a row to prevent AKITA from pulling away as Yoann and Rolf contributed one each just after their swap in to be added to three more Hans goals bringing the half time score to 11 - 5.
The orders at half time were quite simple, more of the same and increase the pressure in defense on some of their players. The DEMI teams was also looking for adjustments. To try to create more options, they accelerated their rythm and rotates players around, this gave them few more opportunities of scoring and they were awarded penalties on a regular basis. Unfortunately for them, Angus had been waiting for this opportunity less than 50% of penalties were converted. Even with the Team playing at 4 against 6 and Hans and PA getting excluded in succession, the defense did not break providing a strong support.
The AKITA team was playing at its own pace, losing few balls and showing patience when needed. As Norbert, Ulf and Hans were still adding to their tally, Dominik was also able to add his own goal. with 10 minutes to play, the score was 17 -9. For five minutes, as a Norbert injury created some confusion, none of the team could score but AKITA restarted the machine with a Rolf goal immediately followed by Hans's 8th, Stefan concluded the score of this 20 - 10 victory ensuring a very positive start in this new campaign.
Hans 8, Ulf 3, Norbert 3, Stefan 2, Yoann 1, Rolf 2, Dominik 1
With Alex not there, AKITA opted for a 6-0 defense to try to maximise the height advantage and limit the play to the DEMI line. This allowed for a strong start with Ulf scoring the first goal of the new season on a fast break and AKITA conceding only 2 goals in the first quarter of the match. The fire power from the backs allowed for regular scoring and 3 goals from Hans added to goals from Stefan, Norbert and Ulf brought the score to 6 -2 after 12 minutes.
The DEMI team was running short of options and were looking for number 16, their half left, to find the opening. After being blocked on attempted jump and hip shots he managed to find the way to the wing through crosses and precise shooting. He scored three in a row to prevent AKITA from pulling away as Yoann and Rolf contributed one each just after their swap in to be added to three more Hans goals bringing the half time score to 11 - 5.
The orders at half time were quite simple, more of the same and increase the pressure in defense on some of their players. The DEMI teams was also looking for adjustments. To try to create more options, they accelerated their rythm and rotates players around, this gave them few more opportunities of scoring and they were awarded penalties on a regular basis. Unfortunately for them, Angus had been waiting for this opportunity less than 50% of penalties were converted. Even with the Team playing at 4 against 6 and Hans and PA getting excluded in succession, the defense did not break providing a strong support.
The AKITA team was playing at its own pace, losing few balls and showing patience when needed. As Norbert, Ulf and Hans were still adding to their tally, Dominik was also able to add his own goal. with 10 minutes to play, the score was 17 -9. For five minutes, as a Norbert injury created some confusion, none of the team could score but AKITA restarted the machine with a Rolf goal immediately followed by Hans's 8th, Stefan concluded the score of this 20 - 10 victory ensuring a very positive start in this new campaign.
Hans 8, Ulf 3, Norbert 3, Stefan 2, Yoann 1, Rolf 2, Dominik 1
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Calendar for this year
| Date | Time | Victim | Location | Result |
| Jan 19 | 8:20PM | 元朗 (Yuen Long) | Ho Man Tin | |
| Dec 6 | 4:40PM | KING'S | San Wo, Tuen Mun | 29:13 |
| Nov 29 | 5:50PM | HYDRO | Tin Chui | 22:23 |
| Oct 18 | 2:25PM | 威濤 (Wei Tao) | Choi Hung | 22:12 |
| Oct 11 | 12:15PM | 仁濟聯 (Yan Chai) | Choi Hung | 28:22 |
| Oct 1 | 2:50PM | Magic | Choi Hung | 20:19 |
| Sep 27 | 2:50PM | 顧超文 (Ku Chiu Man) | Choi Hung | 19:19 |
| Sep 20 | 5:10PM | 火鳳凰 (Phoenix) | Choi Hung | 21:17 |
| Sep 13 | 2:50PM | DEMI | Western Park Complex | 20:10 |
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