Champion's League, Top 16, 1st Leg:



A confortably and i must say this time easy win against a weaker opponent, ended up with a poker which being true doesn't reflect the numerous occasions had by New Team to further increase that gap. Playing away paid its toll seems. Our narrow diamond provided, with some solid arrows where needed, a though wall for them since the start and after failing more than once against just the keeper finally we took the lead after a yellow carded foul which J.Romer converted succesfully (20'). Our opponent seems to have selected hard tackling as more fouls and cards started popping out for them luckily without consequences for our players. But the fragmented plays made us struggle to find a second goal as we failed from free kicks with his Goalie being in good form and disarming them all. Before the end of first half tho Schneider reminded them why this season New Team seems to easily find the goal's way and packed a perfect assist for Hutton who ofc didn't fail taking us on 0-2 (45'). In the second half we got in Diamond (Tenma) and Denver (Yuma) to raise our pass rate and aerial potential. Our opponents seemed to continue their attempt to injury us as another yellow carded foul lead to a penalty which Ross easily converted (48'). One minute later Ross again served Schneider who confirmed that he isn't just for assists and scored the final 0-4 (49'). At that point we switched to 3-5-2 V to experiment a few things but we didn't change the score. Another yellow card for them gave us a second penalty and despite Ross being still in Stein took the shoot failing it (74').

Scorers : J.Romer, O.Hutton, J.Ross, K.Schneider.
MoM : J.Ross (8), New Team.

Match's Afterthoughts and Half Season's:

1. A rock solid defense. This season is proving more than any else that a great defense is the starting point of a good team. With 2 goals against (excluding cup) in 20 matches, and the new keeper scoring costantly 7-8, our iron wall is being effective.
2.A balanced midfield. While last season we had offensive oriented MCs and AM/MRLs, this one we balanced out our power source and the results are clear. With Matsukase Tenma (MC, 50Def, 45Att, 45Phy) and J.Romer (48Def, 52Att, 52Phy) our core is able to defend and offend at once. With the subs Diamond (47/47/47) and LeBlanc (47/47/46.6) assisting if needed.
3.A full diving AMC. We trained Tom Becker to be the passpartout for any defense. With his 38Def/58Att/58Phy this season he's at our ST's level. Vital to break solid defenses.
4.The perfect breed forward. A "King" striker able to pile up tons of goals, yet make others score, and a "Knight" one, able to feed assists at will, yet score himself; those are Oliver Hutton and Karl Heinze Schneider who seem to have matched perfectly each other. With them in good conditions, there's no defense unbreakable, not even personal trained ones (see our cup match).

Top Five: Statistics

Most matches played:

1- K.H.Schneider, 24.
2- B.Denver, J.Romer, 22.
3- F.Bergera, O.Hutton, T.Becker, 21.
4- C.Yuma, 20.
5- M.Lenders, 18.

Top Scorers:

1- O.Hutton, 28.
2- T.Becker, 19.
3- K.H.Schneider, 16.
4- J.Romer, 14.
5- M.Lenders, 10.

Top Assisters:

1- K.H.Schnedier, 14.
2- O.Hutton, 9.
3- J.Ross, 7.
4- M.Lenders, 5.
5- J.Romer, 3.

Top MoM:

1- O.Hutton, 12.
2- T.Becker, 4.
3- M.Lenders, 3.
4- F.Bergera, 2.
5- B.Denver, 1.