Bloody Ascension Day weekend! With most of our teammates chilling with their families somewhere nice and calling it «Höhentraining», we had to make up for a lot of missing regulars against Real Azül. Lucky for us, team manager Matt (formerly known as Matteo) had assembled a pretty international squad with some strong guest players, with Menga from Depordivas among them.
Matt gave his instructions in English, coming off as naturally as if he’d just come back from assisting Jürgen at Anfield – and once the game kicked off, you wouldn’t have thought that Deportivo International was just a makeshift selection patched up for the day. Depo came off clean after some initial pressure from Real in the early stages, and from then on, the game was even. Which meant that we also created a few chances – in fact, more chances in the first half alone than we’d had during the entire game the week before (though that doesn’t say much, to be honest).
Gradually, though, Alternative League turned into not so Alternative Debating League. When the ball, at very close range, bounced off Simon’s arm within Depo’s box, Real Azül wanted a penalty – and after a lengthy debate, they got one. So it was 0:1 just before the break.
In the second half, things got more heated. After a borderline challenge well outside the box, Depo wanted a free-kick, and after another discussion, we got one. From way back, Simon came sweeping through the box, so when the goalkeeper caught the ball but then dropped it, our centre-back was right there for the equaliser. And it got better still. After some pretty neat combination play featuring several players, one of our guests finished to put Depo in the lead.
Debating League wasn’t over just yet, though. The game got rougher, some discussions got epic. The guys from Real Azül shouted and protested whenever they felt like it, and some of our guest players let themselves get carried away, too. In a nice ironic twist, it was up to our guy from Southern Italy to cool things down. «From system to anarchy and back to system!» is how Matteo neatly summed up the game in the end. Thanks to some solid defending, Depo managed to secure the win, but it also took a flying attorney to win the three points: With only one or two minutes to go, Jonas took off for a huge save.
Up next: Viking Resistance aka Widerstand Wipkingen.
Aufstellung: Jonas – Floke, Haile, Hannes, Matteo, Menga, Simon – plus so many guests…