The weekend of June 25th to 27th it was time for the annual season end trip of the German All Stars. It was a big family, 43 adults and 17 kids, that went on the bus on early Friday evening at Tesco Lotus on Rama IV. Destination was the River Kwai Village Resort at Kanchanaburi Province. Because of overload and heavy traffic the trip took a bit longer than expected but thanks to a lot of food and healthy German beer by courtesy of the Old German Beer House and Hubert’s Beer Company nobody had to suffer.
Saturday was time for some short trips on long-tail boats, spa and massage or just hanging out at the pool. Later in the day a relaxed German All Stars team moved to the local football pitch to play the River Kwai Village Stars.

River Kwai Village Stars – German All Stars Bangkok 2:2 (4:5 after penalties)
In the first half the GAS tried to control the game but one could get the impression that the GAS looked a bit woody and stiff on this bumpy pitch. So it was the more agilely Thai team who first approached the German goal. But there was nothing that could really worry our goalie Mattze until the “most nocturnal player of the year” played a nice pass with his heel in the feet of an opposite striker who had no problems to kick the ball into the back of the net. Only minutes later the “clubman of the year” trusted too much in our tour organiser’s agility when he tried to pass him the ball across the penalty box … the Thai striker was quicker and said “thank you”. 2:0 for the locals at half time.

After the break the GAS remembered their strenght and pushed the Thais back in their half. We saw some nice moves from Ben and Felipe on the left side and sexy football from Jens and Kelly “the Wade” on the right and after a couple of good chances it was Alex who could score our first goal. Now the GAS really pushed forward for the equalizer. Benni, our “top scorer of the year” saw his fantastic volley shot from 30 meters droping back from the crossbar. Philip, again Alex and also Pablo missed. Time was running, time was up … but the ref somehow liked the game and didn’t want to stop it. The GAS kept on attacking and finally, it must have been in the 11th minute of injury time, it was our Argentinian “goal machine” Pablo who scored his first goal in 3 years. 2:2 and now the final whistle! It came to penalties. There we surprised the other team with some changes: first Pablo went in goal. Tan missed the first penalty (as seen before). But then the next changes – Volker (from sponsor Häfele) and head coach Wolfgang (Pan Asia) took the next penalties wearing flip flops … and both scored! Also Holger scored. But so did the Thais. It came to the last penalty and to our last change – Tan went in goal … and the Thais missed. Then Michel cooly scored before Tan “the man” saved the last penalty. The GAS won and the beer at the pool tasted even better!

In the evening everybody enjoyed a great buffet and BBQ as well as Dave’s funny season presentation (feat. Posh and Becks). Finally it was time to honour some players and management for the great outcome of the last season. We finished 6th in the league, went to the cup’s semi-final. We had another very successful Easter Tournament and many other great moments. Big thanks went to our sponsors Pan Asia Logistics, Bangkok Hospital and Häfele. Awards went to Mr. Party-Fabu for beeing the “most nocturnal player of the season”, to Michel (clubman of the year), to Benni (top scorer), to Damian (sportsman of the year) and to Sebas (player of the year). And I would say also a big DANKESCHÖN to the coaching team Alex, Gerd and Wolfgang as well as Mattze the coach of the veterans. And, last but not least, to our president Hartwig for his fantastic job throughout the whole year!

Sunday was for recovering at the pool (and some cultural excursions) before the bus took us back to Bangkok safe and sound.
Again many thanks to the old German Beer House and Hubert’s Beer Company for food and drinks. And, of course, many many thanks to Torbjörn for organising this fantastic weekend. Big up!!!