For its first match of the second phase, the AKITA team was facing Nam Wan in a midday match. Sun cream was definitely needed as the sun was at its peak and the heat was turned on.
Nam Wan had strong performances as well as less rigorous ones in the group matches to take third, so Akita was not sure of what type of opposition they would face. The main concern before the match though was the heat. With a match starting at 11:15 and absolutely no shade anywhere, the intention was to put the match away as fast as possible to avoid a difficult ending.
After a nice clean goal by Guillaume on the right wing on the 2nd minute, both team played very much defensive, observing each other and the second goal only came on the 7th minute by David. The number 12, best scorer of Nam Wan, immediately answered and the match really started then. With AKITA scoring 1 goal every 2 minutes and defending with commitment, the score went to 5 - 1 before a penalty was given to Nam Wan to score their 2nd. From there on, the Nam Wan team could not find any gap and 3 goals of Hans with David and PA between them made the score 9 - 2. The AKITA team was playing at its own (slow) pace, making sure no fast break was given and creating the doubt in the opponents mind.
For the restart of the match, the team made few changes but more prejudiciably, moved down a notch in intensity. The pace of the match accelerated despite the heat and it was not necessarily to the advantage of the oldest team on the pitch... Nam Wan got the first 2 goals of the half, giving them something to build and cheer on. Lars was the first to answer followed in the same minute by a Hans fast break. Then Norbert traded goal with the Nam Wan team each of his three consecutive goals being answered back. One more goal from Ulf and the score was only 16 - 9. It was the moment for the AKITA team to take a time out to try to refocus and revisit its game plan. It did not become perfect, but still proved an positive as the end of the match was a little bit more controlled.
Hans immediately put 1 goal more and this was followed by the play of the match. Lars starting from the right wing, ran with the ball to cross with the half left and then without stopping received a laser pass in position of left wing in the middle of two defenders, at the 6 meters, preceding David on the way and slotting the ball through the keeper without even seeing the goal. That left the whole bench screaming and clapping and the Nam Wan team bewildered and still wondering how the ball went through the whole defense first and the keeper second.
PA, Ulf and David kept on adding some goals and Norbert concluded this 23 - 13 victory. This was not the strongest outing of AKITA as the team clearly suffered from the heat as well as a lack of consistency, but the strong defensive performance of the first half made the match more manageable. The difficulty to mantain constant focus in this heat was nevertheless creating concerns to the coaches.
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