Friday, April 23, 2010

AKITA submerges HYDRO in the second half 21 - 16 (11 - 11) to set-up a MAGIC final

This was potentially the biggest match in the still recent history of the AKITA Handball Club. For both club, anything else than a win would potentially terminate their hopes of promotion to league 1. In their previous encounter, AKITA suffered their only loss of the season after coming back from 8 goals down to fail 1 goal short.

HYDRO was commited to their high defense in order to try to make the difference on the break whereas AKITA was faithful to its lower and team defense. The team speech reminded players to help each other in defense and to give options in attack.

After few neutralised attack on both sides, HYDRO opened the scoring. Norbert answered for AKITA. A penalty helped HYDRO to stay in front although Matsuo scored making marvels in a half left position. 3 goald by Hydro built cushion but AKITA kept their head cool and keep playing their games with 2 goals from Florian, 2 from Matsuo and 1 from Norbert against a lonely penalty (7 - 6 after 17 minutes). Twice HYDRO came back but both times Matsuo and Markus restored the advantage. A goal from Joakim after a good circulation of the ball even made it 10 - 8 but in the last 3 minutes, few good stops from HYDRO allowed them to equalise. A Michael goal was then cancelled by a penalty before the half time whistle.

Although AKITA did not manage to contain HYDRO as much as targeted, the team felt not much was missing and the coaches asked for a little more intensity to try to create the gap.

The second half started like the first Norbert scoring but Hydro half left answering back. It was obvious that the HYDRO team needed to work hard to stay in the match and was taking more and more risks to score goals. as Alex and Florian once again built a 2 goal advantage, HYDRO came back to 1 goal but that was the last time they stay within distance. They had reached the breaking point and AKITA was then able to anihilate completely the attacks of HYDRO. After a Florian goal, a PA interception started a series of 5 attacks without a shot on target from HYDRO. Interceptions from Norbert and Alex with few high shots resulted in goals from Michael, Yoann and Ulf and 3 more goals from Florian to make the score 21 - 13 !. After this amazing defensive speel, the intensity went down a notch and AKITA strolled for the last 5 minutes missing some good shooting opportunity and letting HYDRO score 3 in the last 2 minutes for a very convincing 21 - 16 victory.

With this win, AKITA set-up the perfect show-down with MAGIC for a title fight between the 2 teams to be promoted in League 1 (subject to official confirmation results of the other matchs). The match will be Sunday 2, May at 730PM in Choi-Hung. A perfect evening match full of suspens as AKITA won their first encounter by one goal only whereas MAGIC has gorwn stronger as the second phase started with huge vitories. The winner here will take it all!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

AKITA gets out of the fire at the last minute against 火鳳凰 (Phoenix) 20 -19 (5-10)

It was a pretty depleted AKITA team that met in the Western Park Sports Centre. Because of holiday, injuries and other reasons, only 8 players could make it. Thanks to Rolf for coming to support Lars, Matsuo, Joakim, Yoann, Ulf, Michael, Florian and PA.

The match started quite slowly for AKITA, after conceding on the first action, a missed penalty allowed Phoenix to lead 2 - 0. PA shot from 9 to bring the first goal and Michael brought thing to parity after 5 minutes but as AKITA missed 2 more penalties Phoenix was once again ahead by 2. Joakim well placed received a good pass from the half to score his first but some wide shooting and one more penalty missed significantly pulled AKITA backwards. With 8 minutes to go in the first half, the scored climbed to 8 - 3. AKITA stopped the rot, but not much better as another Joakim goal and Ulf first were quickly answered to reach the half on 10 - 5.

At the half time, Wan was prompt to remind the players that it was just because of some unfortunate shooting on AKITA side and a little bit of good fortune on some Phoenix shooting that the gap seemed so large. During the game, both teams fared almost equally with AKITA in fact having slightly more chance of shooting.

A strong start for AKITA helped putting pressure back on Phoenix as Ulf scored first before Florian stepped up on penalties to score 2 in a row and bring back AKITA in sight. From there on, the match reached summits in tension. Phoenix's half left scored a penalty to restore a 3 goals advantage but Michael answered on the following attack. Immediately the same half left scored his 6th of the day. Florian managed to answer before Matsuo caught fire from the hald left position to first bring back AKITA to one goal and then keep them in contention with 2 additional furious shots from the 9 meters answering Phoenix goals uppercut for uppercut. As Phoenix number 2 scored his 8th on a penalty. A quite fired up Florian added his 4th putting pressure on Phoenix as AKITA was still navigating 1 behind. Shortly after replacing Michael on the right wing PA scored with a curved ball in a tight angle but once again Phoenix restored a 2 goal advantage.

In such a tight encounter, the referees had to whistle a lot and the defending was always on the edge. With the adrenaline at its high Florian saw some more space and was able to go through the defense for 2 more goals to come back to 17 - 17 with 5 minutes to go. This was the first parity since the 5th minute. Phoenix did not let themselve be intimidated as they scored back. Ulf restored parity demonstrating the fighting spirit that prevailed in the second half. On the following attack, PA got the double sentence of a 2 minute suspension and a penalty when he stopped irregularly Phoenix number 2 from a clear wing shot. An action which got vindicated by Wan who stopped the penalty giving AKITA a ball to move ahead! This was deemed to go to Florian who scored his 7th to make it 19 - 18. Phoenix did not want to die and number 17 slotted a ball above Wan head for parity.

With 1 minute to go and the team back to full strength, the bench was asking AKITA to make this attack long and productive. After turning the ball around, Ulf finally found Yoann who forgot all his bruises and pain of the day with a traditional wing shot in the far corner and a potentially decisive advantage. It was still not over. AKITA had to defend for 15 seconds with all their heart. Following some rumble, they pushed the ball in a throw in with 4 seconds to go. Phoenix still had a time-out that they took to try to organise a last shot with their keeper coming in to help. AKITA moved their players to stop the ball as fast as possible out of the throw in and amongst too many players, Florian emerged with the ball and just had to throw it the other way around to confirm a 1 goal win and 3 essential points.

This was not a very remarkable technical performance but this was a very strong mental one that ensure that promotion will be decided on the direct encounters against HYDRO and MAGIC. Next Sunday's match against HYDRO will be the most important one of the season so far!

Florian 7, Matsuo 3, Ulf 3, Michael 2, Joakim 2, PA 2, Yoann 1

AKITA starts the second phase with a win against Wei Tao 24 -19 (13 - 13)

After a strong start with Matsuo and Michael scoring 2 each on top of an Ulf goal, AKITA was leading 5 - 2 but a string of conceded penalties prevented the gap to widen further Matsuo and Ulf adding one more whereas Markus opened his count and 2 goals from Wei Tao brought the gap to 2 only (8- 6 on 16th minute). On the right wing, Lars was repaid for his activity as he managed to overtake his defender and powerfully slotted through from the right wing. After Markus made the score 10 - 7, AKITA suffered a lapse in concentration and few lost balls or insufficient defending resulted in 4 conceded goals in 4 minutes as Wei Tao moved ahead by one.

The last 3 minutes were closely fought as AKITA came back 3 times from behind through Matsuo, Markus and Michael to end on 13 - 13. At the half time, the team was conscious that it had not been a pretty performance but that the main requirement was to tighten the defense.

AKITA started the second half with an immediate goal from Matsuo to go back on top and followed with a strong defense but without adding the goals to make a gap. After 5 minutes Wei Tao scored their first goal to make it 14 - 14. 2 goals from Florian and Markus on each wings should have made the difference but Wei Tao came back again.

This is the moment AKITA finally changed gear and use its improved defense to feed it attack and move away. 5 unanswered goals from Michael, Norbert (2), Yoann and Ulf sealed the match with 10 minutes to go. From there on, Wei Tao was only able to score on penalties as Wan was there to compensate for any gap in the defense, stopping few fast breaks on his own. 3 more French goals (2 for florian and 1 for Yoann) and the match was over 24 -19.

It may not have been an ideal performance but it was a good crescendo with an ideal results. With the 3 points, AKITA stays on top of the league with 3 potentially decisive matchs to come.

The HK Giants Team

The HK Giants Team