Spring 2006 Open Age

Spring 2006. After having moved up from Div. IIA to IB and then to IA in consecutive seasons, Alemannia Aixpress was not sure where it would fit in in Div. IA. The goal was to advance to the Premier league by finishing first or second in IA. We started the season with a convincing 7:3 over AC Aguilas. The team had added a few strong players in the offseason, including Marcio Avila in left midfield and Dany Alfaro as left defender. This clearly paid off in this game. In the second game of the season, we lost to Tenacious D. They were playing very well, and our defense had an "unconvincing" day. Alemannia fell behind 0:2 and 1:3 and was unable to put pressure on the opposing defense. With an early loss, we knew we had to pretty much win out the season to finish first or second. The following game was against Arsenal, who did not have a good start into the season. Alemannia beat Arsenal 3:0 and was back on track to a winning season. The fourth game, we played Cricketers Arms. This team was our main rival in the old days in the coed league of the OSSC. While they had only one win at the time, we knew not to underestimate them. It was the expected physical match, but in the end, Alemannia prevailed with 4:2. On March 12, the opponent was Deportivo Zacapa. So far, Zacapa had not allowed more than three goals and had tied most of their games. We knew this would be an opponent with a strong defense. We dominated the midfield and had an abundance of scoring chances. But their goal keeper was very strong and their defense held us to one goal. And in the final minute of the game, Zacapa scored the heart-breaking equalizer to make the game 1:1. Due to a few roster changes, Alemannia added two new players. Noel Playter improved the depth in midfield and Jay Morlachetta joined us as a defender. We needed their help urgently for the upcoming game against FC Rogue. This was a physical match, bordering on unfair, with a lot of trash talking. Eventually, we were able to pull out the W with 4:2 on goals of Kevin Bibey (3) and Marcio Avila. At this time, the standings showed that we were in a neck to neck race for one of the first two spots in the standings with Fiddlers Green United and Inter United. We were scheduled to play them in the following two weeks and knew that if we beat them both, we would almost certainly be league Champion. The game against Fiddlers Green was very close. Both teams had chances to score and both teams knew what was at stake. In the end, the game ended in a 0:0 tie. The chance to catch up with Fiddlers and Inter was wasted. But then, we heard that Inter had surprisingly tied its game. There was new hope to be able to catch one of the other two teams at the top. The following week, we played Inter at the fields at West Orange. They were clearly the strongest team we had played so far. But we held our own and our strikers Kevin Bibely and Gary Magill gave their defense lots of trouble. We were up 2:0, then 3:1 and with two minutes to play, 4:3. However, since we thought we had to make up five goals in goal difference with one game left, we pressed for one more goal. In the last minute, we caught a counter attack and Inter tied the game, 4:4. Now, the only hope left was that Inter would lose to Zacapa and we would win our game against Boston Fish House. BFH had advanced with us the last two seasons and so far, we had never won against them. However, the followoing week, they were no match for a determined Alemannia team. We controlled midfield and their strikers, and after being tied at halftime 1:1, we scored 4 more goals to win it 5:1. Unfortunately, on the next field over, Inter was able to pull off a 1:1 against Zacapa in what looked like a very physical game. We ended the regular season one point behind Inter and two points behind Fiddlers. Congratulations to two excellent teams and good luck to them in the Premier League. We hope to follow them next season. In the tournament, which follows the regular season, we were able to exact some revenge against Tenacious D, by beating them 5:0. In the second round of the tournament, we again played Inter United. In a match full of passion, both teams played excellent football in brutal heat. Every single player went to the limit and beyond. After regular game time and double overtime, the score was tied 2:2, with two goals by Avila. In the penalty shoot out, after each team converted its first four shots, Alemannia´s Sevy Sucurovic hit an excellent low shot into the corner, but the Inter keeper made a fantastic save to win the game. The season ended and we did not achieve the goals we had set, advancing to Premier and win the Tournament. But looking back, we had an excellent season as a team in a new league, and we fell short as a newcomer against two teams who just had come down from Premier.  TEAM MVP of the season was Kevin Bibey, who was Game MVP four times. Second in the MVP voting was Matt Fischer, third Ryan Cabarrao.