A look back at the SMA soccer tournament

sven Henschel

The setting: Friday afternoon, the athletic fields. Around 30 teams came together for the internal SMA soccer tournament. The start of the game was still an hour and a half away, but the first employees had already arrived. The atmosphere was filled with anticipation and excitement on the part of the players. After two last-minute cancellations were taken into consideration, the tournament started nearly on time. Numerous spectators and fans of individual teams turned up, too. Then the first games kicked off. I was part of the referee team. A delegation made up of our new colleagues from dtw in Poland even joined in and qualified for the intermediate round on Saturday along with eleven other teams.

Continuation on Saturday

Saturday morning began with a sudden change in the weather. The intermediate round began with a slight delay and cooler temperatures. The intermediate round was played with four groups with three teams each on two fields. The two teams with the most wins advanced to the elimination round, meaning that a total of eight teams moved on to the quarter finals. Of course, every team wants to make it to the semifinals and the games start becoming more difficult, but by no means unfair. Of course, many referee decisions also result in differences of opinion; each team has its own point of view about the situation. The excitement level soared during the semifinals. On both fields, the games were determined with a nine-meter kick. The spectators didn’t know where to look first.

The final round

That meant that we had the teams for the third place game and the finals. Inter Railway and the dtw went head to head for the third place title. In an exciting game, the team from Poland was in the lead with a score of 2:0 when a Railway player was injured after an unfortunate collision. He was taken to the hospital for examination. Our new colleagues from Poland were there to help take care of the player. We would like to wish the injured player the best wishes for a speedy recovery.

In the the final match, last year’s winner, Area 51, defended its title and triumphed over the Weizen team, thus concluding this year’s tournament. Of course, the events didn’t end without a proper awards ceremony for the top four teams. The winners took the trophy home with them. We would like to extend our thanks to the many helping hands that organized and accompanied this tournament in such a professional fashion – and, of course, to those individuals who took such good care of everyone during the tournament. The only words left to say: we hope to see you all again next year!