This year’s Elite Network of Bavaria football tournament was hosted by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) at the magnificent TUM Campus im Olympiapark sports grounds. In order to arrive on time, we had to leave at 7 am, but luckily the DB was on time, meaning we arrived at the grounds at around 10:30, leaving just enough time to get changed before our first match.
After facing each other in last year’s quarter-finals, this year’s team consisted not only of GCE alumni and spectators, but also members of the Bayreuth-based elite study programme ‘Scientific Computing’. Thanks to Vroni, they were able to organise and design a beautiful set of jerseys. All in all, there were around 20 of us.
Building on last year’s positive performance, we practised a few times beforehand with the clear aim of forming a team, devising a tactical game plan and, of course, practising penalties. As with last year, we finalised our tactical adjustments on the train to Munich. On 14 June, we were blessed with a sunny day, hinting at a warm summer to come.
Our tournament began with two consecutive games, which constituted our entire group phase. Each game lasted 15 minutes and was played with six players and a goalkeeper. We had a rough start to the first game, as we didn’t have a proper warm-up and were up against a very physical team consisting mainly of grown men. We ended up losing 2–0, which was disappointing.
With little time to adjust our game plan, we faced our next opponents. Once again, we really struggled to find our rhythm, but we managed to win 1–0 thanks to a penalty scored by Mateo and won by JC. Although we had reached our target of advancing to the quarter-finals, we were disappointed with our performance. After this short but intense playing session, we had a longer break which included lunch.
After the lunch break, we played our quarter-final. Within the first three minutes, we managed to take the lead thanks to another penalty, which was both drawn and scored by Mateo. After that, it was a hard-fought match, but this time we were able to fight back, with our defence mainly occupied with defending against the opponent’s top striker. At the same time, we kept pushing and, with a beautiful long shot, we scored our second goal. In the final minutes, we focused on not conceding any goals. Ultimately, we limited our opponents to one shot on goal, and we were pleased with both the result and our mentality on the pitch. This was the first time we felt like we were in the tournament.
We reached the stage where we lost last year: the semi-finals. During the semi-final, our opponents put us under a lot of pressure and we were unable to make any offensive moves. Nevertheless, we tried to hold on to the 0–0 draw, bearing in mind that we had practised penalties beforehand. However, with a beautiful move and literally in the last second, our opponents scored, sending us to the lower bracket.
This was a blow for all of us, and we only faced our next opponent after a short break. We ended up losing 3:1. Our goal was scored beautifully following a long throw-in by Vroni. By this point, we had already exceeded the expected tournament time, and we were exhausted from spending hours in the bright sun. This is why we were all kind of happy to be out of the tournament, knowing that we had a long train ride ahead of us. On the other hand, there was also a sense of having missed an opportunity. In the end, we all had a nice day in Munich, and we arrived in Bayreuth at around 9 pm, which was fine too.
We hope to continue joining forces with the Scientific Computing Programme next year. With some minor adjustments and some of our missing players joining, we are confident that we can still dream of winning the ENB Cup.
My aim is to understand the complex interplay of humans, nature, technology & society. Therefore, I did my bachelor in sustainable development with a focus on engineering and energy transition. Global Change Ecology offered me the opportunity to dive deeper into nature & society. These interests are accompanied by a great passion for all kind of sports.
