In many aspect, it was a highly waited match for the Akita team as it was the revenge from last year's 3rd division. With Yuen long winning their previous encounter by two goals, AKITA was motivated to take their revenge and despite the match happening on a tuesday nigh, 11 players were able to make it including new recruits Yankele and Florian.
Because of few reshuffling and move in positions, the team was playing simple and relied mostly on their man to man advantage in attack. Hans opening the scoring before being relayed by a Michael double. Hans, Matsuo and Michael then traded goals with Yuen Long for a 6 - 3 lead after 10 minutes. Yuen Long tried to play with some individual defending as it worked a year before but unfortunately for them, AKITA had more experience and a deeper team. As a consequence it produced the opposite results as it opened Yuen Long defense and provided plenty of space for AKITA players to go to 6 meters or pass to their line Matsuo who made the gap 4. Hans added his third before Markus also got his chance bringing the score to 9 - 4. With a five goal cushion, the team should have been a little more relaxed but the defense did not feel as confident as usual as more adjustment were required to compensate missing players and to integrate new players. Matsuo and Hans were still providing the goods to maintain the gap before Yankele added a couple to reach the end of the first half on a 15 - 10 score line.
After the break Yuen Long came back very motivated and managed the first 2 goals of the second half to put pressure on AKITA. Stefan restores a 4 goal-cushion but the game was still far from over. AKITA was forced into commiting too many fouls to compensate for the excess space in the defence and Matsuo's second yellow card sent him to the side. AKITA did not concede during this penalty period but a couple minute later shortly after answering a Yuen Long goal, Hans was also called on for 2 minutes. Despite Yankele scoring 2 to restore a 5 goal advantage, the match was not under control particularly as 2 minutes penalty were still awarded.
With 12 minutes to go Markus scored his third of the day to slow down Yuen long return but 2 more goals from the opponents saw AKITA cushion fall to 2. Florian traded a goal with Yuen long before the last 5 minutes where the defense finally stepped up to make the end of the match more comfortable. As AKITA did not concede anymore, additional goals from Hans, Matsuo and Ulf concluded a slightly flattering score line by restoring the half time 5 goal advantage (24 -19).
Hans 7, Matsuo 4, Yankele 4, Markus 3, Michael 3, Florian 1, Ulf 1, Stefan 1
With few matches to go, the 5 remaining contenders for the promotion phase are known and a new championship will start with very little point difference between the top contenders. AKITA, Magic and Hydro could well start in a tie for the first position as it currently stands with Wei Tao and Phoenix joining them in the second phase.
A simulation of the table will give the following result and confirms that in the 2nd League, it is better to have a name made of 5 latin characters:
___________Played____Points__Goal Difference
AKITA ________4_________9_________+14
MAGIC________4_________9_________+12
HYDRO _______4_________9__________+6
Phoenix ______4_________3__________-6
Wei Tao ______4_________0_________-26
