HK Giants/Yuen Long

This Saturday 15^th, the HK GIANTS were down for the first to Tseung Kwan O to play their last game in 2012. After a long debate on which was the fastest way, we arrived to the pitch and get changed, ready to kick some asses.

Our opponents of the day were Yuen Long, 5^th position, young and fast team. We were focus and determined to not make the same mistake as our last game, when we lost focus and motivation and completely jumped out of the game in 2^nd half.

With, again, 14 players on the game sheet, a proper warm up and a few shots on our sick keeper, we started the first half in attack. The first few minutes showed a very strong defense, leaving no opportunities to our opponents to shoot. Hopefully, their keeper successfully stopped our first few shots as well, to make sure we can’t get the lead. After 8 minutes, the score was 2-2 and our defense in 5-1 pushed them many time to the last seconds allowed in attack. On our side, the few nice combinations that we set up didn’t end up as goals, but were definitely good signs of the health of our attack.

The score didn’t evolve much until the 15^th minutes, getting our first time-out on the draw score of 5-5. But then, they started to use combinations for their left wing, and we didn’t react early enough, letting them score a 6-1 within 10 minutes, giving them a 5 goals lead (11-6) 5 minutes before the half time. Hopefully, we manned up the last minutes to get back and reach the break with a 3 goals gap, 11-8.

The speech during half time was clear. Keep our control, don’t try to rush out and play individually and play our match. The first 7 players went back on the pitch, fully motivated to win this game.

And it worked. After scoring 2 goals in a row in the first 2 minutes, we were back in the game, chasing our opponents. It went back and forth until the 8^th minutes, when they get back a 3 goals lead. But for the first time, the GIANTS didn’t lose focus and stayed in the game, which brought us to score a 6-1 in 15 minutes, getting us to lead by 2 goals (19-17).

Then, our German Max decided it was a bit too easy, and on a counter-attack, successfully got a red card straight away. With 4 minutes on the clock and a 2 minutes penalty, the end of the game was stressful. But our 6 players definitely nailed this period, scoring 2 goals and stopping one counter attack, which gave us 2 goals lead while back 7 on the pitch.

The last 2 minutes and the aggressive defense of our opponents didn’t change anything, and the final whistle saw our victory on the final score of 22-20.

This game showed that we have the level for this division, as well as team, individual and mental capacity to present well. Some details are still perfectible, but in the end, we played a strong game, showing mental resources and strong team spirit.

With now 3 victories for 4 lost, we’re securing our place in first division. Top 5 is still reachable with 2 games to go before the end of regular season, especially that we’re playing the 1^st and 6^th of the actual ranking, so direct opponents for a place in Top 5.

As usual, a few highlights. Paul, Florian and Marcel, who ended up best scorers of the game with 4 goals each. Tim, our sick keeper who stopped a few important shots. Max, who successfully get the 2^nd red card of the history of the team. And to all the other players, who came and maybe didn’t play much, but your presence was very important for the team.

We’re done with 2012, next games will be in 2013 and we’ll definitely need to start over with another win. Before that, the HK GIANTS will gather for their Christmas dinner and share a few beers before everyone enjoy the holidays!

See you all very soon on the pitch.