We just won our final group game and are still short of breath, because our hearts have been racing the whole time.
We already knew this would be an exciting game, because the 01. RFC Berlin defeated the IT Androids with the same score as us: 9-0.
However the IT Androids did not put up as much as a fight, as Berlin did.
Our excitement increased even more, when we found out, that our game was postponed, because the simulation had not finished yet. This was the first game of the competition where this was necessary.
We speculated it was because the simulation was more complex with our robots colliding more than the other robots have so far. So we knew we were in for an exciting game.
Already at the start of the game, the Berlin robots pushed us deep into our side of the field by playing the ball into our penalty area. However our robots managed to win the ensuing tackle against the other robots and their robot got penalized. We used the time we won and got the ball back to the middle of the field. However, this did not save us yet and their robots managed to push back again.
They even attempted a shot on the goal, but our heroic goalie managed to save the day and kept the ball out of the net. This was not the end of their attack. They even managed to convince the referee to give them a penalty kick.
They kicked the ball and it would have gone in, but the referee blew their (imaginary) whistle, because they had kicked the ball, while the referee had not allowed it yet.
That was our saving grace in this case. The attacker had to leave the field for 30 seconds and our robots got the opportunity to attack.
Just like the Berlin robots didn’t have much luck, we were also stopped by their good defense and couldn’t get the ball to pass the goal line.
After an exciting time of the ball being played by both teams in the middle of the field, we got our lucky break. Two of the Berlin robots got sent to the side of the field and our attacker managed to get past the only defender that was left. We used that opportunity and finally managed to rush to the goal and score.
Our robot in the middle of the field used the opportunity and cheered for their teammate who managed to get us the lead for the game.
However, the Berlin robots didn’t give up, they still managed to get close to scoring again. The referee saved us again, when they penalized their robots, because they again acted too early or tried to push us close to our goal.
We managed to carry our 1-0 lead into the second half and after a while it seemed like we had broken the spirit of one of the Berlin robots. After getting a penalty it just stopped moving in the middle of a step. The members of the 01. RFC Berlin told us this was due to a bug and the robot just crashed.
Our robots used this opportunity and managed to win the tackles in the opponents penalty area to score our second goal of the match.
With a 2:0 lead, our heart rates went slightly down again and we were happy about our lead.
However, the robot that had stopped moving, started to move again and the blue robots of the 01. RFC Berlin managed to get very close to scoring a goal and only centimeters saved us.
We managed to still play forward and save a few more close calls and achieved a final score of 4-0.
In the end, both our robotic and also our human members were exhausted, but also celebrated our great game.
We thank 01. RFC Berlin for the great game and we hope to meet you in the final again. (With the same result hopefully ;))
If you want to watch the game in realtime, a video of it is available here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1067256488?t=01h24m36s
