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.

The post ENB-Cup in München 2025 appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

This year’s team consist out of around 15 alumni, spectators and current GCEs, equipped with a brand-new set of jerseys provided by the sports faculty. To prevent a repetition of the of the mediocre performances of the last years, we committed ourselves to hold a few practices beforehand. Nevertheless, the last tactical directions were given during the train ride. We arrived at the University of Regensburg without much trouble and were blessed by a beautiful sunny day.

This was accompanied by a pitch in splendid condition, which is no comparison for the Wilde-Liga pitches we were practicing on. Moreover, there was a sufficient supply of drinks, food and snacks. Everything was set to show our skills and surprise the competition which travelled from all over Bavaria to Regensburg. The tournament started with a group phase, followed by knockout rounds. Each game lasted 15 Minutes and was played 6 vs. 6 (+goalie).

After starting nervous, we were able to take control of the first game. The only thig which we weren’t able to do was scoring a goal, so we ended up being a draw. Because our second opponent didn’t show up, we already advanced to the quarter finals, without having scored a single goal. This shouldn’t be changed in our next game, which was mainly played between the boxes. Unfortunately, we conceded a goal just before the end of the match.

After the lunch break, we actually faced another team of the University of Bayreuth the scientific computing program. As in previous games our defence was solid, but just couldn’t make use of our chance in offence. This was changed roughly 3 minutes before the end, with Mateo scoring an artistic goal (see picture). The goal seemed to wake up our opponents, who now attacked us with the mute of despair, but the GCE defence once again was standing strong, and we manged take home the win and advance to the semi-finals.

Even though our mood was great, we also started to feel exhausted from the previous games. Moreover, since there weren’t many teams left, we had little to no break before having to play our semi-final. Right around mid-game our opponents went up front. But if anyone thought that would be it, it wasn’t. Quickly after being behind Mateo scored a beautiful equalizer. From that point onwards the match was much more spectacular, since both of the teams weren’t able to prevent passing mistakes, leading to good chances at both sides, with an optical advantage on the GCE side. After the extra time of 5 minutes not only the game ended with a draw, but we also ran out of energy. Since there was a winner to be determined, there was a penalty shoot-out, which we unfortunately lost.

It was just as all of us were pleased with the performance and would gladly make our way home, as we realized we also had to play the next match for the third place. Hereby we couldn’t offer much of a fight and lost the game 2:0 and were finally able to get home. We proudly reached Bayreuth at 8pm and with this much later then expected. We hope that we can built up on that performance in the next year.

The post ENB-Cup in Regensburg 2024 appeared first on Global Change Ecology.