Our squad of 16 players was well equipped to stand up to their opponents in the sunny and certainly energy-sapping conditions.
Coach Chris Frank's tactical approach was clear - play compact defence, let the opponents come and create space and scoring opportunities by winning the ball quickly on the counter-attack.
The defensive part worked perfectly. Our two twin towers Nik and Philip in central defence (who together are as tall as the entire Chin FC team stacked on top of each other) flanked by the disciplined full-backs Nils and Daniel, cleared everything that moved on the ground and in the air. After winning the ball, however, the Allstars were too unfocussed and, especially in the final third, the attacks were not finished off well. After a few half-chances, however, GAS 3 took the lead when Jens caught out his opponent on the halfway line and played a perfectly-timed pass into the path of Christopher, who gave the goalkeeper no chance and converted ice-cold into the far corner. Before half-time, Oscar had the chance to increase the lead to 2:0 after a great solo run, but missed the target by shooting to the left.
In the second half, Chin FC's attacking efforts were characterized above all by a series of incorrect throw-ins, which the referee failed to punish and thus incurred the wrath of Nils. In response to our captain's (not unjustified) complaint, the referee gave him a (perceived) 5-minute private lesson on the correct execution of throw-ins. This was probably the decisive reason why the referee now decided in favour of our opponents in tricky situations and awarded them a questionable free kick on the 16-metre line 15 minutes before the match end. Our goalkeeper could only allow the free-kick, which was kicked directly at goal, to drip forward and the ball ended up in the goal. Our team now became more active again but were unable to convert their superiority in terms of play and numbers, due to a red card for their opponents, into a win. At the end the result 1:1 was a fair draw.