Mannheim takes USAREUR soccer
title; Mildenhall is tops in USAFE
By Rusty Bryan, Stars
and Stripes
Raymond T. Conway / S&S
Giessen's Arturo Ramirez, right, tries to maneuver around Mannheim's Jermaine Lyons during
the championship game of the USAREUR soccer tournament Sunday in Mannheim, Germany.
Ramirez scored the game-winning goal. |
MANNHEIM, Germany — Another all-out defensive effort, another late goal, another
1-0 victory.
Championship Sunday turned out to be a typical day on the field for the Giessen
Knights. Except this time, the 1-0 decision over the Mannheim Mustangs earned the Knights
the 2001 USAREUR soccer championship.
"This was a total team victory," Giessen sweeper Jon Soltz said mere moments
after a shot off the left foot of Arturo Ramirez determined the outcome.
Ramirez’s goal, the first ball of the tournament to get past Mannheim goalkeeper
Chukwuemea Wackey, was set up by a perfect cross from teammate Jose Morales and came with
less than two minutes left in regulation. Less than 24 hours earlier, Giessen had
eliminated defending champion Wiesbaden 1-0 on a goal in the final two minutes.
Even more typically, Sunday’s game-winner was rooted in the phase of the game most
dear to the Knights’ hearts.
"Did you see that the goal came off a counterattack from the defense?" asked
Joffre Celleri, who won the ball on the Giessen side of midfield and hammered it down the
left side, leaving it for Morales to run it down. When he caught up to the ball, Morales
dribbled until he was about 20 yards from the endline, then launched his cross toward
Ramirez, who was being marked by two defenders at the top of the box directly in front of
Wackey.
As the defenders broke toward the ball, Ramirez quickly jumped outside of them,
effectively rubbing the outside defender off on the inside man, and protecting the ball
with his body as he got off the shot.
"How about that pass?," Morales asked Ramirez as the two embraced after the
game.
"Bonito," Ramirez replied, "bonito."
Pretty, it was, but the real beauty of the contest as the victors saw it was the way a
pair of little-used players, Jaime Bettancourt and Paulo Costa, stepped in for banged-up
and banned Knights and maintained the ferocious defensive intensity.
"I’ve only played five minutes all year," said Bettancourt after
executing nearly flawlessly everything he was asked to do and helping to shut down most of
Mannheim’s forays on its left side.
Raymond T. Conway / S&S
Giessen's Arturo Ramirez, right, and Mannheim's Charles Lougens fight for a loose ball. |
"To win, 11 guys have to play all 90 minutes," Soltz said. "It was a hot
day today, and we didn’t have one substitution. That’s because guys like
Bettencourt and Costa came through."
Soltz’s teammate on the German club SV Schwalheim, Ramirez, caused problems all
day for Mannheim, as he posed danger even on one-on-three rushes into the Mustangs
defense.
Mannheim, which had beaten Giessen 2-0 in the final game of the regular season, had no
answer to the Giessen defense, although that didn’t stop the Mustangs from trying to
find one, particularly in the second half.
The Mustangs began the half by rolling a ball across the Giessen goalmouth and, moments
later, launching a volley off a clearing kick that found the net, but they were ruled
offsides.
Mannheim’s other big threat came with about 15 minutes to play, when Chet
Wooldbridge banged a screamer from outside the box toward the right side of the Giessen
net. Giessen goalkeeper Momar Samb, though, dived quickly to his left and punched the ball
wide, preserving the shutout.
Since falling behind 1-0 in the first 15 minutes of their game against Ansbach on
Friday, the Knights have gone 315 minutes without giving up a goal.
For its part, Mannheim went 268 minutes before giving up its first goal of the
tournament, and the Mustangs will join Giessen in the Army-Air Force Final Four tournament
July 7-9 in Mainz, Germany, where both defenses will be tested by USAFE’s top two
teams, RAF Mildenhall and Incirlik.
In Sunday’s consolation game, Heidelberg, on goals by former Heidelberg High star
Clayton Chesarek and Serigne Gueye, defeated Wiesbaden 2-0.
Mildenhall takes USAFE title
RAF ALCONBURY, England — Andy Hackett is bound to be a marked man when he takes on
the best community soccer teams that U.S. Army Europe has to offer in two weeks.
Hackett scored four times Sunday — bringing his total to seven in his past two
games — to lead RAF Mildenhall to an 8-0 rout of Incirlik in the finals of the U.S.
Air Forces Europe championship.
Two goals from Max Westland and an own goal gave Mildenhall a 3-0 advantage only 15
minutes into the contest. Hackett took over from there, scoring two times before and after
a goal from Derek Foster to put the game away.
Mildenhall and Incirlik both advance to the Army-Air Force Final Four set for July 7-9
in Mainz, Germany.
In the third-place game Sunday, Michael Chrivia and Tom Welde scored as RAF Lakenheath
topped Ramstein 2-1. Ben Parrish scored for Ramstein.
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