Last Saturday the first round of the Hebiguchi Cup took place. The Cup is named after a Japanese player that died of a heart failure during a SIFL match many years ago. We had a similar case happening to our club when our dear player Anthony Bissai Ebongo tragically passed away from a heart failure after a Monday night game 2 years ago. For our team the Hebiguchi cup is therefore a reminder that things like this can happen and we all have to be prepared to take action in such a situation. Nowadays, to all our matches we bring a portable defibrillator that is self explanatory and increases the chances of saving a life in case of a heart failure. Of course we all hope that something like this never happens again but at least the defibrillator sponsored by the Schaeffler group gives us one more tool to act in case of such an emergency.

ReUnited actually won the Hebiguchi Cup last season and we dedicate the cup to Anthony. This year we set out to keep the title in our club, and our first opponent in this competition was premier league side Long Tang AFC. We played them just a few weeks ago in the league, where we gave away a 3-goal advantage to settle for a draw. We knew that since then they had reinforced their team with several players who played for DIB last season, so it was clear for us it would not be an easy game either.

We started with Cody in goal, Seb and Will in central defense, Thomas and Essien on the fullback positions, Karsten and Ronald in defensive midfield, Lusimi and Daniel on the wings, Steve in offensive midfield and the king upfront. Dennis, Tobi, Lucas and David started as substitutes. First half we followed a rather defensive tactics, not allowing Long Tang too many chances. On the other side, we had a few chances through our fast offensive players, but were not able to convert them into goals. Second half we started more agressively and got closer and closer to scoring the first goal. However, ten minutes into second half we were unable to clear a ball from defense and Long Tang managed to put the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead. We stepped up our efforts but did not manage to create too many good chances any more. So the closer we got to the end of the game, the more we opened up our defense. Unfortunately this risk was not rewarded, but instead in the last minutes of the game we conceded a second goal through a counter attack. This goal sealed the deal for Long Tang, making it a final result of 2-0 for them.

NOTE: Due to the use of non-registered players by Long Tang AFC the result of this game was made void and counted as a 5-0 win for ReUnited. We will therefore proceed to the next round of the Hebiguchi Cup, which will take place on December 13.