Saturday, June 14 was the day of the long awaited Hebiguchi-Cup final. After the SIFL-Cup final in 2012, which we lost in a very tight match against the Lions, this was the second time we had the chance to reward our efforts with a title. This being one of the most important matches in our club history, almost everyone showed up and we had a fantastic squad of 17 players together. It was one of the hottest days this year so far, but we had only one thing in mind: taking the cup home with us this time.
What we learned quite early that day though was that our opponent is always good for some surprises: after two very convincing and at some time awkward victories against Metro this season (remember the strategies “I-am-not-gonna-defend-this-kind-of-penalty-I-do-not-agree-with” and “ball vs. referee’s face” from two weeks before) they switched their tactics. It looked like they wanted to stop that kind of behavior by using a new squad, and registered a bunch of new players the day before the match.
At first, this strategy seemed to work pretty well. Metro played very solid football from the back, and always looked for ways to outrun our defense with their speedy runners. On this extremely hot and humid day we struggled at first to find our composition, but there was not much danger on both sides in the first 15 minutes. However, in minute 17 Metro beat our offside trap and their left winger converted to a 1-0 lead. However we did not give ourselves up and got closer to their goal. Only a short while later a handball in Metro’s box smelled very much like penalty, but the referee’s whistle remained silent. We slowly gained ground though.
After a passionate half time speech by Mike “Mr. Motivator” Miller who came with the whole 3U squad all the way from Songjiang Sports Stadium to support us in this important game, we started furiously in the second half and the match could go either way. However, not long into the second half a clearance from our keeper Cody went directly to Metro’s waiting striker, who had an easy time converting to 2-0. We kept on fighting, but it seemed like the fortunes were not in our favor that day. Metro soon added another two, and shortly before the end they got rewarded a penalty. One of their surprise new talents Wang Bo had no trouble converting it to a 5-0 win. What was supposed to be our biggest day, somehow turned into a nightmare. The only thing that managed to save our day was the fact that our brothers from 3U showed up and since for most of the way from Songjiang to WGQ they were terminating canisters of Sangria, they quickly got us to shift gears again. The evening ended in a collective inebriation at our beloved Grand Yard, where we celebrated also the soon-to-be farewell of two legends of the club, Alvaro “General” Corbetta and Fabian “Schnaps-is-my-water” Krämer.
Usually the story would end here, however not that weekend: We were still in disbelief what happened on the pitch that day. The fact that Metro were only 8th in the league with 13 points at that moment and we had an easy time beating them 3-0 and 6-0 before alone was bizarre, but of course explainable through a change of players. Yet as the league committee found out shortly after, several of these new players were not just football-loving amateur players like us and everybody else in this great league, but professionals from the highest Chinese division. This of course is not only a severe breach of the league rules, but also an immense show of disrespect to our team, the league and all it stands for. Naturally the league committee had to follow the league rules and award us with the Hebiguchi cup title. We are still extremely disappointed that we were not able to gain the title in a fair match between two regular SIFL teams and we do feel betrayed for not being able to walk off the pitch with the feeling of the biggest victory in our club history. But we are immensely proud that we won this title we worked so hard for over many years, with fantastic performances in the games leading to this final, and we are celebrating it as the coronation of our best season ever and our love for football and this fantastic club!
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
