written by Dirk
At our traditional Christmas party at Hubert’s Warehouse the beer flew steadily: No problem, because the Casuals just had their game on this day and the Vet’s tournament the following day was cancelled (third time this year…). Only five players had confirmed. Not really enough. So, there was no obstacle not to drink ourselves stupid.
If it weren’t for a guy called Ralf K. from T.
The only one who still did not give up and he really managed it, maybe for the first time in history of the German All Stars, to settle a team consisting of eleven players just hours before the tournament would start. So thanks a lot for Ralf and all other guys (who might have just confirmed because of the enthusiasm of the fifteenth Pilsener…) who helped in the very last minute.
Nevertheless, a whole team showed up the next day, even though not ALL of the promised players came by; Yilmaz brought two more friends and we had our team with even enough substitutes. Next surprise: Next to the eight or so Japanese teams our old friends, the Refugees, weren’t participating. Maybe they had their xmas party the previous day as well?
After some inspiring games from us (we won three of them very clear and lost one, even though we had a chance proportion of about 100:1…) we ended up first in the group. All our goals were made by the new guys and finally Yilmaz scored twice, after trying it approximated 725 times.
Semifinal was a piece of cake against a Japanese team (what else), we won 2:0 and up we went into the final! What a game!
Cheng made a sensational goal in the early stage, the Ref was clearly not on our side, even the opposing team could not really believe some of his decisions. Michael showed some excellent reflexes, Yilmaz fought his guts out and the rest of the team fought bravely against angry attacking Japanese Kamikaze players. It didn’t help us. A very questionable goal decided the fight for them. But hey, we won silverware after a Christmas party! After we canceled already! I think that was truly a Christmas miracle of a kind!
Merry xmas and a happy new year with lots of victories, goals and as less as possible injuries to all of the GAS team!
