Last weekend, Germany hosted England and Belgium for the second mybet 3-Nations-Cup in Sippersfeld. In contrast to last year, Germany had two teams in the competition, as coaches Mueller and Baak wanted to use the tournament to find their final squad for the miniEuro next month.
The first match of the tournament was taking place between the two German teams, where the team white in jerseys beat team in black surprisingly clear by 5:1 with the match lasting only 30 minutes in total. “Actually, we did divide our whole squad in two teams of the same strength, but that didn´t really come out in the first match” said head coach Mueller after the match.
After a small opening ceremony, EMF newcomer Belgium competed against England. In the first half, Belgium kept up very well and was only down by 0:1 at the whistle. In the second half England could use their greater experience in minifootball to finally win by 3:0.
After a youth-match between two local teams, Belgium had to face Germany black for their second match. Despite numerous chances to score for the German team they were down by 0:1 at halftime, since Belgium defended very well, had a keeper at his best and used one of a few neglects in the German defense to score. This was the only point that day, where coach Mueller turned a little louder in his voice, demanding “a better structure as well as better playing out of the basic order”. This powerful speech showed impact, Germany black won 3:2.
The following match took place between Germany white and England. Germany, which acted very confidently after their 5:1 kick-off, played very concentrated but did not find a way through the English defense. England even took the lead by a lucky deflected shot and still lead at halftime. The second half then was the most spectacular of the day. First, one very beautiful play resulted in the equalizer for Germany. When local hero Marc Windecker scored the 2:1 (27th minute) only a little later, the spectators went crazy… at least for one minute, since England in direct return scored the 2:2 (28th minute). But that should not be the end. With the very last attack, which was a brilliant counter, Jannik Meck scored the game-winner and brought Germany white near to winning the cup.
Subsequently to another youth match Germany white had to face Belgium in the last but one match of the day. Only five minutes went by before Marvin Fricke scored the opener for Germany. Only one minute later, Belgium equalized the score. From that point on Germany white dominated the match and was a well-deserved winner of the match and the cup.
The last match of the day was then taking place between England and Germany black. In a balanced match both teams absolutely tried to reach the second place. Germany scored first and lead 1:0 at halftime. In the second half however England got back into play and even took the 2:1 lead before Kaplan (Germany) scored his second goal of the match. Since no team could score another goal in the remaining time, this match ended 2:2.
Because of the goal difference this is the final result of the mybet 3-Nations-Cup:
1st place: Germany white
2nd place: England
3rd place: Germany black
4th place: Belgium