Here is how it went: quick and simple…..

Friday, 2nd April
7:30 p.m. – Group Drawing 18 teams drawn in 3 groups, Krauts drawn in Group A together with Swiss Club Singapore, Manila Nomads, Taiwan Mongols, Carnegies Taipei, Hanoi Croatia International. 8 p.m. bed rest.

Saturday, 3rd April
8:30 a.m. Arrival Patana School
Without any major injuries, especially Franz not injured yet. Pre-kick-off squad Krauts: Nicolas, Franz, Robson, Brett, Daniel, Pat, Emilio, Bert – 3 men short!!!!!

9:00 a.m. kick-off first Group match – Taiwan Mongrels
What a confidence, with 8 men Krauts started the challenging 2-day tournament and Titelverteidigung. A confused referee and Taiwan Mongrels counting only 8 Krauts and were wondering if they misunderstood this as a 7-aside tournament. No 11-aside it is and off we go. Krauts dressed in light green looking good tough. Praesi even managed to find new boots with exact green color.
Line-up 3-3-1: Nicolas (Goal), Franz (libero), Bert (left defense), Brett (right defense), Pat (central midfield), Robson (left wing), Emilio (left wing), Daniel (striker). 5 minutes into the 22 minutes matches Marteen arrived and took over the right wing. Still to men short!
Match summary: Thanks to the problems the Mongrels had with the ball, themselves and football itself as well as strong performance of Franz in the back, Pat in the middle, Marteen and especially Praesi who assisted both goals (indirectly through Marteen tough but a clear indication that the action upfront was (only) run through Praesi, notably the first assist was extended through the heel) Krauts managed to win 2-1.
Goals: 1-0 Krauts (Robson), 1-1 Mongrels (Franz…), 2-1 Krauts (Emilio)

12:00 a.m. – Hanoi Croatia
Time well spend between the first and second match: Krauts could organize additional players with Anthony (straight from the airport), Alex (representing the next World Cup host country), Paul and Chris (each with a half time), Tobias and Dave.
Line-up 4-4-2: Nicolas (Goal), Franz (libero), Bert (left defense), Brett (right defense), Paul/ Chris (defensive midfield), Midfield line with Marteen/ Dave, Pat, Emilio/ Daniel and Tobias/ Robson, Anthony and Alex as striker. So in total now 15 players.
Match summary: Krauts dominating all along, very solid team play. Good passes, 3 clean goals and hardly any chances for Hanoi Croatia.
Goals: 1-0 Pat, 2-0 Emilio 3-0 Krauts (Alex, after served by Praesi being fouled from behind but able to give the deadly pass while falling). Extra point for scoring 3 goals.

2:00 p.m. – Manila Nomads
Line-up 4-4-2: Nicolas (Goal), Defense with Franz, Bert, Brett and Dave, Midfield line with Marteen, Pat, Emilio/ Daniel and Tobias/ Robson, Anthony and Alex as striker as before. 13 players altogether.
Match summary: Krauts again able to dominate from kick-off through final whistle.
Goals: 1-0 (Pat), 2-0 (header Daniel), 3-0 (Alex). Again additional point for the record.

4:00 p.m. – Carnegies Taipei
Line-up 4-4-2: Same, same before
Match summary: Last match of the day and quite a tough one, Krauts marginally dominating but without major chances. Too much individual football and too less team play. So it took again the Praesi to change that. Nice double pass: from Alex to Praesi over right side into the penalty area, elegant turn and cross pass to Alex again to score last minute.
Goals: 1-0 Krauts (Alex)

Successful first tournament day for Krauts with 14 points, right on track. Departure to hotel 5 p.m., bed rest at 8 p.m.

Sunday, 4th April
8:30 a.m. Arrival Patana School
And again big question mark who will make it to the starting line-up. Losing Chris and Tobias would make it hard enough for the second tournament day.

9:00 a.m. kick-off last Group match – Swiss Club Singapore
At least we could make it 11 short before kick-off. But soon we were down to 10 due to head injury from Marteen.
Line-up 3-5-2: Nicolas (Goal), Defense with Franz, Bert and Brett, Midfield line with Marteen, Pat (defense midfield) Anthony (offensive midfield) and Emilio and Robson, Alex and Daniel as striker.
Match summary: Tactics were discussed and ranging from losing the match to save energy to try to give everything to beat the Swiss and manage a successful start into the day and keep morale up (latter one prevailed). The injury of Marteen was a reflection of a very physical match with the Swiss fouling and moaning as if it would be the final already. But great morale and team fight from Krauts. Being down with 2 goals, Krauts managed with 10 men to finally draw the match (against the later tournament winner).
Goals: 0-1 Swiss, 0-2 Swiss, 1-2 Krauts (Alex penalty), 2-2 (Anthony)

Only due to goal difference Krauts finished as second in group A. Quarterfinal against Winner of Group C (the group of death).

12:00 p.m. Quarterfinal – Vietnam Reunited
Now it counts! Vietnam Reunited were the Krauts opponent in last years final and were beaten by a clean 2-0. So rest assured that the had a open bill. With Marteen coming back on time from hospital, Paul and newly acquired Thai teenager Pete, Krauts back to 13.
Line-up 4-4-2: Nicolas (Goal), Defense with Franz, Bert, Brett and Paul, Midfield line with Marteen, Pat, Anthony, Emilio/ Robson and striker with Alex and Pete/Daniel.
Match summary: Early goal in minute one. Long ball from inside Krauts half which dangerously fell down in front of our goal through all the Krauts defense. That alone would not have been the problem but there was a Reunited player coldly materializing. This time Krauts were unable to come back and lost its ability to play as a team like we did Saturday - obviously an account to all the great matches in the group stage with 38 degree Celsius.
Final score: 0-1 Reunited.

Thanks to the tournament mode there was another chance to reach the semi-finals against Olympique de Saigon. The fact that it was only played 30 minutes later did not really help. Although we received an early goal, Krauts was fighting until the end with a couple of good chances. But again too many individual plays, total loss of team work (and stamina as major cause). The match might have changed to the good if Daniel would have passed the ball further to Pete who was standing all alone in front of the goal. Instead Praesi tried to score his second one but only found the lack of a Saigon defender. Another goal near to the end destroyed all the hope for Krauts to defend the title.

All that was left was the final match for the 5th place. But how you going to do that with only 6 players left? Easy: let the opponent Saigon Raiders prepare and warm-up and just before kick-off announce that we can only make a direct penalty shoot-out or walk over. Confident enough Saigon Raiders took the offer and were lured into the penalty shout out. 5 penalties each, so all the remaining players of Krauts had to take one. Franz, Anthony, Robson Brett and Praesi all made their final goals of the tournament. And with Saigon hitting the post once, we won at least the last match and with it the 5th place. Not to bad after all especially considering all the organisational bottlenecks to get a full and consistent team together.

Apart from football it was a rather boring weekend - as usual. Thanks to all the Krauts, friends and supporters for yet another memorable football weekend. See you all next year for another tournament, at least there will be something to fight for again.

Yours,
Press Department
Shanghai Krauts FC

Saturday, 20.03.2010 / SIFL Premiere League
GAME REPORT: Shanghai Krauts – Shanghai Japan FC / Result: 2-0 (0-0)

After last weeks strong match against the French the Krauts wanted to continue their “Aufwärtstrend” and make a good game against the quick and technical well playing Japanese.

“El Presidente” Daniel, after having played against the Japanese last week with “Krauts die Zweite” already gave some very useful instructions how to play the Japanese. “Stand concentrated in the middle and be very close to your opponents. Also be very tough in the tacklings. Nicolas if you come out – both knees up!”

The last sentence is of course not to be taken seriously though.

The following team started:
Goalie: Nicolas
Defense: Daniel W., Ralf M., Markus
Midfield: Matthias, Jens, Kirk, Julio, Helge
Strikers: Marcus & Marc
Substitutes: Eric, Thorben and Stephan

In the first half a nice game developed with light advantages for the Japanese. Nicolas, after already being in Topform last week, saved 2 times very strongly for the Krauts.

The Japanese did not really have an idea how to play the very well sorted defense of the Krauts and tried long high balls. Obviously the Japanese did not win many headers against the tall German defense (and Ralf, who won all of his headers too though).

10 minutes into the second half Helge was fouled 10 meters into the Japanese half. Jens kicked the freekick directly onto the goalie who could not catch the ball and let it bounce to Eric. Eric who had just been substituted reacted like a real striker and without any hesitation scored the goal.

In the 75th minute again there was a freekick for the Krauts in our own half close to the middleline. Jens was taking this shot again and in the air the ball gets longer and longer and lands directly in the goal.

After asking the substitutes from where the ball was shot, the response was “almost our own penalty area!”

Now the Krauts could relax a little and did not let anything happen anymore to jeopardize the well deserved victory.

Nicolas: some very strong saves – 2
Daniel W.: probably with his last game for the Krauts, playing the unusual sweeper-position. Great game, you will be missed! – 1
Ralf M.: Winning every header and almost every tackle makes you wonder why he wants to play midfield – 1
Markus: solid Job – 2
Jens: one assist and one goal – 1
Kirk: some bad passes, but still very strong defense together with Jens – 2-
Matthias: first a little bit lost on the right side but in the second half some very good passes and ideas – 3
Julio: very good game, running like he has a battery in his back – 2
Helge: Man of the Match, making the tempo like a Number 10 should – 2
Marcus: Was the one who came to bring the “Unruhe” into the game and did a great Job at that – 3+
Marc: Working very hard today but not so lucky – 3
Thorben: did a good job keeping the ball in the offense and spreading it – 3
Eric: 2 Chances, 1 goal, what more do you want? Right, 2 chances, 2 goals. apology accepted though, Eric! - 2
Stephan: Using his body very well against the Japanese, one good chance for a goal, but no luck – 3

Altogether this was probably the best game of the season (at least the best game I saw). Everybody was fighting for each other, and in between we even managed to play some very good soccer. That’s the spirit we need to play the next hard games and to stay in the league.

Gruss, Timo

Saturday, 23.01.2010 / SIFL Premiere League
GAME REPORT: Shanghai Krauts - Shanghai Vikings / Result: 1-1 (0-1)

The Krauts had to show their fans that they still can play some quality football and that they still kept the ability to win a match after a clearly defeat against the Italians on last Saturday.

Coach Marcus Oestmann (better known as “Hülse”) sent the following line-up on the pitch to prove the above mentioned points:

Nicolas – Daniel, Olaf, Markus R., - Kirk, Matthias, Jens, Stephan, Timo, Hülse – Mark

Substitutes: Peter, Bilgin

The new strategy of playing with only one striker and a “triangle” of three players in the center-midfield should make the team more compact and strengthen the defence.

But although we got the triangle on our side it was the team of the Vikings that “made the music” within the first 15 minutes. After missing one big chance at the early beginning, the Vikings scored with their second opportunity (12. min). So far, the Krauts did not take a shot on the enemy’s goal and it really looked like an easy win for the Vikings.

However, after 20 minutes the Krauts began to play quite good football out of a sudden and it seemed that the past minutes have been forgotten. The defence players nearly won each tackle from now on and the midfield set up pressure on the Vikings. Mark did his best to make trouble in front of the goal and Jens did a quite good job in spreading well thought passes to his team mates. Only a goal was missing on our side.

Short before half-time all members of the Krauts and their supporters lifted up their arms to celebrate Kirk’s first goal of the season. Kirk got the ball 2 meters in front of the goal and shot immediately. Unfortunately, the keeper of the Vikings could not move out of the ball’s way and saved Kirks trial. So, everybody was welcome to bring down the arms again.

The team began the second half with the same line-up as it finished the first half. No substitution so far. This was a good decision because the Krauts kept on playing well. A goal was just a question of time it seemed. The Vikings were not able to move the ball out of their half. After missing some more or less good chances Hülse decided to substitute Peter for Stephan (78. min). This was the turning point according to Peter although he never touched the ball until Mark scored for the Krauts. Mark’s goal was a volley tap-in after Jens set a fine shot against the bar.

The last 10 minutes became quite hectically because the Vikings did not agree with several decisions of the referee. Worst in their eyes was a denied goal because of offside position.

By the way, the Krauts liked this decision because it was a correct one. Both teams really had the opportunities to win this match within the last 5 minutes, but none of the players was able to shoot a game winning goal.

One point gained? Two points lost? This is really a hard question to answer.

Anyway, most impressing was the come back of the Krauts during this game and the good team spirit.

Scores:
0-1 (12.)
1-1 Mark (78.)

Report: Thorben

Saturday, 21.11.2009 / NEWS
Ceremony for the Trainer Of the Year 2008/09 Award

After the outstanding win of the SIFL 1st Division in the year 2008/2009, the SIFL League has awarded the "Trainer of the Year" to Dirk Richelmann (Shanghai Krauts FC).