On paper, Mannschaft had all the makings of a C4 Division champion. Or so its architects had come to believe.

“But there was an incredible lack of cohesion and every player was singing his own tune,” explains Hamza Bekka, recalling in thoughtful prose the downward spiral that saw the team surrender eight of its first ten games. “There came a point where we had to question the entire experiment.”

Bekka insists Mannschaft’s saving grace came, somewhat counter-intuitively, on the night of a 4-1 loss to the mighty FC Boavista Knights, when the team decided to play for fun instead of for wins.

The squad has been on a mini-roll ever since. Their most recent 4-3 win over FC La Madonna has left them just four points shy of a playoff spot. “Despite the actual standings and current point-deficit, we still believe in ourselves.”

POTG: Antonio Fraser came through again for Mannschaft with two goals, complimenting a hat trick from the week before.

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