Despite a very early start (9am kick-off) it was a fully motivated 13-strong squad that was warming up well on time. That was the first sign that the commitment at least was there. Everyone knew what was a stake, anything else than a win would remove any chance of promotion.
Coach Banks made a rather extensive briefing, focusing on the different options available to the team in defense and in attack to make sure the AKITA team would be able to adapt to anything thrown at them. To surprise the opposition, he kept Hans on the bench with PA deputising on the right half for the first few minutes. Wan was starting in the goal and stayed for the whole match as Markus was missing in some sunny island. With Yoann on the left wing, Norbert in half left, Ulf centre, Rolf on the right wing and Alex on the line the instruction was to play direct and straight to the goal to put pressure. This worked well with PA opening the scoring, unfortunately ARISE immediately got the first of many penalty to bring them to parity. Norbert scored 2 for one ARISE goal and as the league leaders were starting to settle in, it was time to get Hans on the pitch. This immediately paid off with him scoring 2 goals in one minute. As the coaches were calling for a strong defensive effort, Wan remained undefeated for a full 10 minutes bringing the score to 8-2. Alex, Hans and Norbert had been yellow carded by the 10th minute but it was clearly not for lack of commitment.
As ARISE was struggling to go through the defense, they were insisting on their line and the simple strategy of pushing defenders in the 6 meter area to ask for penalties. This proved efficient as the referees were particularly strict on inside defending rather than on offensive fouls. Neverthless, by half time Alex, Markus R., Ulf added their contribution to Norbert and Hans sustained effort to make the score 13 - 4. That was probably the most complete hald ever played by AKITA as the game plan had been fully respected. Conscious that second halves are usually not the strongest part of the AKITA performances, the coaches asked everyone to remain focus. The team had been swapping well to keep everyone fresh and wanted to capitalise on that in the second half.
The ARISE team obtained one more converted penalty directly at the restart. After Yoann scored his first of the match, both team faced a stallmate for 5 minutes as noone seemed able to score. 2 quick goals from RISE bringing the score to 15-9 were required to wake up the team. Hans scored one more to restart the team but ARISE answered quickly again with 2 goals. The AKITA team was letting themselves played into the fast rythm of their opponents rather than imposoing is slow progressive favored one. As the defense settled back again to prevent any ARISE fast play it provided balls again for fast break as well as wing plays with David scoring 3 and Markus 1. ARISE scored a last goal on the 16th minutes to bring the score to 19 - 11 but it was becoming obvious withless than 10 to play that they had limited fuel left in the tank as they pushed as hard as they could at the restart. With a strong turnover with to Dominick, Guillaume and Nobel also participating, the AKITA team was still fresh and able to develop its game. Guilaume added his name to the scoresheet thanks to a good pass from Hans with 3 minutes to go and Hans did not let anyone but himself conclude the scoring of a 23-11 victory.
Coach Banks was hardly euphoric when he made the match summary: Today, AKITA showed its potential as a team, and proved 100% determination. Everyone had the will to succeed, and everyone contributed to this formidable triumph. Now, after this splendid success we can all look forward to the final matches of the season. Let's all stay focused, and earn the merits for AKITA's maiden season in the final two matches of this round. With this in mind I shall conclude: "Mu.... nass!" (Alex, aka Coach Banks)
AKITA is now back amongst the promotion places with ARISE dropping into 3rd. Yuen Long victory against HKIED means they stand first in the league thanks to their particular result against AKITA and they are now only 2 matches away from a division title.
Hans 8, Norbert 4, David 3, Markus 2, Alex 2, Ulf 1, PA 1, Guille 1, Yoann 1
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