Glimmer of hope for Irish Defence Forces
Credit:
Netherlands 0 Germany 1
It is all to play for next Friday for the Irish Defence Forces after today’s close encounter between the Dutch and German Armed Forces in the second game of the CISM World Soccer Trophy qualifying group which is being held this week in Ireland.
On an immaculately prepared Eamonn Deacy Park in Galway, a Lars Schäfer goal, after 24 minutes, was all that separated the two teams in what was a tough physical encounter.
Ireland will now take on the Germans on Friday in Drom, home of Salthill Devon FC, in the final game of the group, knowing that a 3-0 victory will see them win the Group on goals scored while a 2-0 win will mean that the Irish will grab the runners-up spot to the Netherlands on goal difference.
While achieving either result against the Group favourites will be difficult for the Irish team, they will take some encouragement from the fact that they dominated so much of last Monday’s game against a Dutch side that made the Germans work very hard for their win.
The Germans started the brighter and it was Schäfer who provided the greatest threat throughout. After eight minutes he shot from outside the box straight at Jeffrey Vendrig in the Dutch goals who handled it easily.
In the 15th minute Andreas Dick struck a beautiful free kick from 25 metres which Vendrig in the Dutch goal was unable to hold but the incoming Benjamin Lamprecht was unable to steer the rebound on target. Five minutes later, Schäfer was again on target, but his powerful header was also straight at Vendrig.
The Dutch had to wait until the 22nd minute for their first opportunity. A cross from David Hermans on the left was chested down by Kevin Liefhebber to the inrushing Mark Den Hartogh, but he pushed his effort well wide.
Two minutes later the Dutch were finally made to pay for not keeping a tighter rein on Schäfer. A cross from Florian Lehmann was controlled beautifully by Schäfer on his chest and in one movement he took the ball away from Dutch centre-half, Den Hartogh, before smashing the ball high into the net from eight yards.
The Germans continued to press with Dick skimming the crossbar with another freekick after 27 minutes and Schäfer pulling a great save from Vendrig after dribbling past both Den Hartogh and Van Der Brink in the Dutch defence.
In the 38th minute, the Dutch had what appeared to be a legitimate call for hand-ball turned down by Maltese referee, Martin Borg, when a rasping cross from Liefhebber struck the raised hand of Michèl Kniat in the German Defence.
However, the final chance of the half again fell to Schäfer whose header from Lehmann’s corner just went the wrong side of the cross bar.
The second half started much the same way as the first had ended. Schäfer should have scored after 49 minutes when he turned and shot from inside the Dutch penalty area only to see his effort skim the top of the Dutch cross-bar.
However, his opposite number in the Dutch side, Liefhebber, who had caused the Irish so much trouble on Monday, should also have done better after 55 minutes when he failed to control a long ball from Den Hartogh which put him through only for Thomas Bohrmann in the German goal to scramble the ball away to safety.
The best opportunity of the game for the Dutch came in the 61st minute when some great interplay between Liefhebber and Hermans down the left allowed Hermans to cross to Sigi Carrera in the German box. Carrera took the ball down smartly and should have scored but he managed to push his shot wide of the right post.
The final genuine opportunity of the game fell to the Germans when Sascha Brinker’s 70th minute strike from outside the box was well saved by Vendrig.
The last 20 minutes saw the Dutch team push hard for an equaliser but they were unable to trouble the well organised German Defence and the Germans saw out the game to achieve a 1-0 victory.
Netherlands: Vendrig, Jansma, Den Hartogh, Hermans, Van Der Linden (Van Der Linden, 77) Liefhebber, Carrera, Sturmans, Jensen, Haverslay, Azeuini (Van Boxtal, 71). Unused substitutes: Van Der Wal, Dijksteel, Yalcin
Germany: Bohrmann, Georgi, Lehmann, Kniat, Dick, Brinker, Lamprecht (Roll,66), Schäfer, Gerdes (Boljahn,56) , Bossauer (Scheinpflug, 87), Kubaritsch. Unused substitutes: Emektas, Forster, Heβ, Wuttke, Nenning.
