Past saturday seven lads of our team (Deen, James, Amir, Clement, Adonis, Alejandro & Marian) travelled 200km south from Berlin to participate at the Indoor Cup 2014 organized by TSV Rotation Dresden. With the goal to not be last at the tournament our expectations weren’t really high, we just wanted that weekend to be one for the memories, so it was. Arriving in Coswig around noon in pure sunshine this tournament could have been held actually outdoors having temperatures of 12 degrees. Arrived at the arena the atmosphere was very good, changing rooms were provided and personalized (see photos), snacks and drinks could been bought for a small fee and the field was in very good condition (and it had 5x2m goals)!!! To name it first, the two referees were mostly doing a good job and explained why they whistled fouls which was a really positive aspect of that tournament. So the game shedule mentioned that we have the very first game of the tournament at 3pm and it was against the C team of TSV Rotation Dresden. Teams played on an equal level but two ball loses while being on offenese mode got as a 0-2 at the middle of the game. We increased the pressure but only managed to score one goal shortly before the time was over – so we lost the game sadly 1-2.
We knew we have to do much better in the next games (3 more were left) to make it to the semi-final. We played in a group of 5 teams and only the first two would move to the semi-finals and we still have to face the defending champion in our last group game. Next opponent was Lok Dresden, which won their first game 4-0 so we been warned. We started furious with a new 1-2-2 tactic. It turned out well and after 9min of game time we left the field with a 3-1 victory with goals by Alejandro, Clement and Amir.
Our third game was against the weakest team in our group but we started to be not precises and lose the ball often. After few minutes we had a run and scored for a 4-1 victory with goals by Marian, Clement and Amir (2x).
By now we had 6 points of possible 9 and we still had our last game against the strongest opponent, the A-Team of TSV Roation Dresden while our direct opponent for the 2nd place had to face the weakest team in our group. The A-Team was well known for play with their goalkeeper outside, a 3-2 tactic so they played all the way some Barca-TikiTaka infront of our goal. Deen tried to pick up a low ball running towards the ground line while the striker of Rotation still tried to get it aswell and as Deen had the Ball in his hand and hustled to continue the game the referee suddenly whistled a penalty against us, everyone (even the crowd) was so surprised but complaining didn’t help, 0-1 against us. Shortly after that the TikiTaka took effect and the Rotation striker lobed the ball over Deen 0-2. Now it was really hard to come back but we are meant to fight, right?! Clement and Marian scored two late goals so we were tied 2-2 while Rotation was struggling to control our conters. With one minute left we tried all but at the end we drew out of this game and the crowd was applausing for us for the effort against that strong team. We were proud of us for the spirit and fighting. Our last game was the game for place 5 and 6 which we lost 1-5 mainly giving up our spirit so we finished the tournament with a good 6th place of 10 participating teams.
The free sunday we used to enjoy the city of Dresden with beautiful sunshine, beer and food.
