After a pretty successful autumn season, a legendary Christmas party (at least according to those sources who have some memories left) and a well-deserved winter break, last week we started into the new football year 2015. Despite some minor complaints at Wednesday training about jetlags and recent overdoses of Christmas food we were ready to start the new year with a bang and wanted to put us in a good position for the title race. Our opponent on Saturday were Big Bamboo Shooters, and this match was not only a fierce bar competition between Limbo and Big Bamboo but a close match between second and third in the league with the same amount of points.

We were still missing a few players such as Essien, Adam, Luismi and long-term injured Dennis, nevertheless we had a very strong squad for this challenge. Our starting line-up was Cody in goal, Will and Seb on the central defense positions, Thomas and Lucas as fullbacks, Karsten and Ronaldinho in defensive midfield, David and Alex as wingers, Stevie in offensive midfield and Tobi upfront. Comeback king Mandela and trialist Robert completed our squad that day.

As we expected, Shooters started to press us with all their offensive power, but our defensive set-up was solid and did not allow any good chances for them. At the same time we were running some counter attacks over our fast offensive players. These tactics turned out to be successful. In minute 11 Tobi got into the box on the right side and took a shot on the keeper. The ball bounced back to Alex, who played a smart pass on Steve. Steve did not hesitate and put the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead. Just four minutes later, there was another counter attack and Tobi received a smooth ball from Steve. Tobi seized this opportunity and put the ball behind the keeper – 2-0 for ReU. Our gameplay stayed very solid throughout the first half, and Shooters got chances only by corner balls. It was one of those that put them back into the game when Chris Nie headed the ball into goal in minute 25. We did not lose our composure though and it remained 2-1 until half time.

Second half started pretty similar like the first one ended. However in minute 55 we had to take a different kind of hit. After a challenge on the left side close to the box the referee showed the red card to Lucas, meaning we had to finish the game with one man down. David moved from the wing to the left fullback position to fill the gap. Our focus was to keep our 1-goal advantage while creating some opportunities for counter attacks. Our efforts were successful as even though the Shooters tried with all they had to crack our defense, the defensive shape by our entire squad allowed them almost no good chances. On the other side we created some opportunities to seal the deal. We were close to do so when Steve put a shot across the crossbar around minute 75, and shortly after when Shooters’ keeper Chris Banyard stopped another counter attack. However in minute 87 Robert received a long ball from Cody on the right side, played it into the box to Tobi, who had the eye for Steve and played a beautiful cross to the left side of the goal. Man of the match Stevie Wonder came running and headed the ball into the center of the net for a 3-1 lead, in total his 12th goal this season. Shooters threw it all in again to make it back but we did not allow them any more chances. Even the fact that they did not give us the ball back after we kicked it out due to an injury did not help any more (Live quote from the pitch: “Football died today”) and victory was ours. Through a great team effort we celebrated in the end a hard-fought victory in a tough match with one man down. Football year 2015 could not have started better!