Coming from a big 1st match day win against Azur the 1s hit the road and arrived on a pitch narrower than Pauli’s calves and invaded on the sidelines by trees, setting the day for an instant tuff match against Higgins Pumas. Having our capi souvlaki back from the holidays and with no additional stress other than the usual few late arrivals the starting 11 was set and the message was clear; the intensity and hunger are non negotiable the rest we will figure it out.

All was set and done in the changing room and we headed straight to the pitch with our formation of 3-5-2 featuring Fede - Dex - Matthias - Chinchilla - Paul - Robin-Max - Wanis - Sebi - Boni - Daniele ( Nico - Andy - Tarik). After an incredibly long warm up due to a delay on previous matches it was of essential importance that we started the match focused and that we set the intensity as high as possible from the first minute and so we did. In the first minute of the game and from a late awakening from the opponents, Paul’s throw-in finds our hitman Boni gives us the lead early on to set the tone of the match. After an early goal it is always important to not decompress and keep the rhythm and so we did. The 1s were trying to play as much football as possible with the conditions present while our opponents had a more direct football with their long balls and creation through chaos. However, with our outstanding defensiveness and compactness combined with our good pressing we kept the pressure off Fede who had not much work to do. Following some very nice associations from our midfielders and our players up top it was clear that the match was in our hands and that it was just a matter of time until we scored again and then boom! After a great press and recovery, Boni, who NEEDS to be involved in every goal we score, assists Daniele who turns and shoots from outside the box to make it 2-0 heading to half-time.

After a few corrections from our capitanos at half time the objective was now to keep the lead and try to keep the clean sheet so that we could bring the three points home. The second half was characterized by an even more direct approach from the opponents who tried to push us deep, while we tried to keep a great pressure on their buildup and find quick transitions from defence to attack. So was it that the clearer chances came from great presses or counters that eventually led to shots from Daniele, Robin and Wanis who unfortunately couldn’t find the back of the net. The rest of the match hence followed the same pattern with the subs of Tarik, Nico and Andy locking up our defence. All of this however without a little scare where a good long ball finds their number 10 on the back of our defence and Chinchilla had to track him down and slide tackle to block the shot sending it to a corner kick. The last minutes of the match consisted of great defensive efforts from all the team since the opponents were trying to take advantage of their height through lots of long throw-ins and numerous corner kicks. However after a 2 very ABSSA coded yellow cards to Paul and Dex and an overall well fought match the 1s knew how to suffer and we completed a successful away day, 3 points, clean sheet and top off the league.

Lots of positives to be carried forward to the rest of the season now we head to an always complicated away match to Portugal where we will try to keep the streak going!

Pa Pa Pa Pa Rá CHINCHILLA!