27/09/2012
I.ROBOT/HK Giants (16 September)
This Sunday 16th of September was scheduled the first game of the season. Our comeback to the first league was a big time, with a new organization of the team, becoming a club, changing its name to HK Giants, using old jerseys (hipster style) and welcoming a lot of new players.
Old habits never change, and after a good warm up around the pitch (footbridge, corridor) we used our 27 seconds allowed between entering the pitch and the beginning of the game to shoot a few balls to our German keeper.
After an amazing coin flipping, it was time to finally start. Our opponents of the day, I.ROBOT, reminded us one of the worst Will Smith’s movies, and we couldn’t allow this. Also, we were fully motivated due to the few training sessions and the game sheet full of players.
Surprisingly, we probably made the best first 15 minutes we ever played. Leading 8-3 after a quarter, against the top 2 of first league of last season was a great point and an amazing motivation. Unfortunately, we let them come back with a terrible 5-0 in 6 minutes, to finally reach the half time on a parity score of 10-10.
We also lost Florian just before the half time, when he decided to make his little finger meet the shoes of the goal keeper. As everybody knows, this kind of meeting never ends well, and he left the pitch with a dislocated finger and cracked bone. Good luck for the recovery!
It was then time to starts the second half, motivated to not let them score anymore. The first 12 minutes were very tight, tough, with strong defense on both side and an attack lacking of precision. The score was then 15-14 for them, and we were confident that we can keep going on until the end. But then, they decided to show off why they ended 2nd last season, and scored a 6-0 in 10 minutes, to leave us completely stunned on the score of 21-14.
Hopefully, we reacted in the last 5 minutes, and show all our pride. The end of the game was a bit messy, a lot of turnovers and the final whistle stopped the hemorrhage at 24-20.
What we can note about this game: the attack, especially at the beginning of the game was really good. Playing simple, rolling the ball from right to left, waiting for a space to shoot. We saw the results, leading by 5 points. Then, when we all started to be tired and starting to make some wrong decision, force the pass or the shoots, which ended up in numerous turnovers. We need to keep cool and let the ball roll more, take the time in attack. We have plenty of time but always try to shoot within 15 seconds.
Concerning the defense, some points are perfectible, especially taking care of the line and don’t let the back players running into our 9 meters. But as last year, the defense is strong and a good base for the future.
Anyway, all these points are easily improvable by training, and we try now to have quite regular sessions, so every player is welcome to come down as much as possible and get this stuff done!
To end up the recap, a few highlights of the game. Tim, our German keeper (not as trendy as Felix hopefully) who made some wonderful stops. Fabien, who played well and scored some important goals, and finish top scorer with Stefan.
As said at the beginning of this post, some changes are on the way, they will be announced more officially later on.
We also would like to welcome all the new players who joined during summer, for, we all hope, long long time!
And thanks to the supporters came this Sunday, hope we can even more in the coming weeks.
