This was a risky match for many reasons for the AKITA team. First AKITA needed to bounce back from its sunday defeat, second Chun Yuen had finished co-leader of group C and third it was a week day match. Something not very well suited for the AKITA team that could not be sure of how many players would be on time... Except some minor delay for one of the players who wanted to visit the Choi Hung changing room before joining the Ho Man Tin Leisure centre for the match, there was no issue and the match sheet was 12-strong with Wan, Markus, Norbert, Dominik for his first match, Ulf, Alex, Hans, David, PA, Guille, Jocelyn and Lars.
Coaches and skipper team talk before the start were pretty clear, AKITA needed to play on its strength and make sure to start at 100%, particularly in defense.
The commitment was there but on the third minute Chun Yuen was given a penalty as the left wing got stopped by PA on his way to the 6 meters. The decision surprised the AKITA team as both players were facing each other and the winger had no chance of a shot attempt. Even more surprising it was the referee the further away from the ball that whistled whereas the other referee was indicating a 9 meters free throw. The AKITA team just shrugged and Hans scored immediately to reinstate parity. Alex was then well served to score 2 in a row. Chun Yuen came back to 3 - 2 but from there on the shop was closed. AKITA scored the following 10 goals without conceding (8 by half time) with almost everyone contributing. During this whole phase, the AKITA team could not get any free throw in its favour.
With the score at 13 - 2, the AKITA team was using its bench a lot keeping energy up but started to be a little less focused. That gave Chun Yuen the chance to score 2 in a row. Jocelyn and Ulf opened the defense in the middle to score 1 each to restore the advantage. Number 23 of Chun Yuen was given a free pass to shoot from the hip in the middle and got one back. Then come what is probably the goal of the match, Guillaume saw the lack of attention of the keeper and of his direct defender on the right wing and shot from 8 meters above the defense in a wing positon. As his brother already started to complain that it was not an open shot the ball ended in the opposite top corner of the goal without the start of a move from the keeper!
Hans and PA added few more goals from the halves but Chun Yuen enjoyed few positive moments and scored 4 in a row. At that time happened one of the most puzzling incident, on an attempt of a fast break the Chun Yuen keeper threw a long ball, as Markus came out to intercept it he jumped, caught the ball and was bumped into by the running Chun Yuen player. As both players ended on the floor and Markus could not control the ball, the referee indicated the penalty point. Markus was fuming and would feel even more unlucky few seconds later when after stopping the 7 meter throw he pushed the ball inside when falling on the floor. On one of the following action, one of the AKITA players went alone in a fast break and when he tried to shoot, everyone could hear the sound of a big slap on his arm. As the ball ended out of play, nothing was whistled. One more penalty given to Shun Yuen by the field referee who overruled his closer colleague again did not lighten the mood but the AKITA team kept its composure to score four more with an excellent Jocelyn scoring the last 2. A brave Chun Yuen scored the final goal of the match to make the score 23 - 11.
There was a taste of deja-vu in this match as AKITA built the result in the first half by conceding only 2. After that the game was more fluid and the AKITA team was less rigorous in the second half. It was an improvement on the last 2 matches but demonstrated that the AKITA team is much more comfortable when they start ahead. On Sunday. AKITA will have no leeway as they will need to win against ARISE to keep their promotion hopes alive. It will be a 9am kick off and it will be important to be awake from the first second.
Hans 5, Johannes 4, Alex 3, PA 3, Norbert 3, David 2, Guille 1, Lars 1, Ulf 1
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