schnellen 3 - 0 Hawk (378583102)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 2539 at Schleim Arena today. Gerd Holzhacker was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Stefan G. Strömner and Walter Alfano. schnellen had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. They fielded: Bourdier - Mayer, Cavalluci, Talbi, Ringenberg - Eikenberry, Nessler, Touchard, Bluhm - Tuzzato, Guzmán.

A 5-5-0 alignment was the formation of choice for Hawk. The following players had been chosen: Guillaume - Zarepour, Niewold, Rossanigo, Salparanta, Berkman - Merkur, Jossin, Łukawski, Beckhall, Simona -.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Hawk. J. Jossin received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 5 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. Hawk's W. Niewold was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 18 minutes. 28 minutes into the game, Hawk seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a solid level of organisation. With 32 minutes gone, a long pass from the defence of Hawk resulted in a counterattack that set E. Beckhall free through the middle, but the keeper made a spectacular diving save. A questionable penalty 40 minutes in gave the home side the lead, 1 - 0. The visitors' goalie didn't stand a chance as P. Guzmán knocked the ball home. After 42 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Hawk found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to passable. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. schnellen claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 83 percent.

During the break, Hawk's coach went through the team's tactics yet again, getting them up to solid organisation. 74 minutes into the game, Hawk seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to weak. A well placed corner kick from P. Guzmán was followed by S. Talbi's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for schnellen, the score now 2 - 0. Hawk almost scored after a counterattack 79 minutes into the match, but K. Salparanta took a shot from the left that landed harmlessly in the side of the net. schnellen managed to extend their lead to 3 - 0 when R. Eikenberry cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by schnellen, with 86 percent of the ball.

The most dominating schnellen player was without a doubt C. Nessler. G. Ringenberg was a disappointment, however. Most important Hawk player was S. Rossanigo. On the other hand, R. Simona's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.