Hanover Kickers can’t escape relegation finish

The Hanover Kickers season came to a disappointing but fitting end this week, as the team let a 2-0 lead whittle away against rivals Niverville in the Manitoba Major Soccer League’s (MMSL) first division.

The Force scored twice in the last 10 minutes, including an injury time equalizer from Marius Enns.

“As the old saying says, a 2-0 at the half is never safe,” Kickers head coach Andreas Bergen said.

The Kickers had trouble moving the ball into the Force half as they attempted to defend their two-goal lead.

“In those kind of situations, you’re actually trying not to be too fancy,” Bergen said.

“If you’re that much under pressure, just get a solid foot on it, clear the ball and let your team set up and start over.”

The Force, which will finish the season in fifth place, put the pressure on Hanover down two goals. They had several glorious chances in the last 30 minutes of the game, including a couple of shots which hit the post, before they finally broke through.

A victory over Niverville wouldn’t have helped Hanover avoid relegation, but could have given the Kickers something to hang their hat on this season.

The Kickers won only a single game this season in division one, placing at the bottom of the standings with the league’s worst goal difference.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things, which I’m not going to put on the map here,” Bergen said when asked what went wrong for the Kickers this season.

“Those little things, once you put them all together, they start becoming big things.”

A disastrous start to the season put Hanover in a tough position to climb out of a relegation spot.

The team couldn’t manage a single result until a 3-3 draw with Kucame FC July 24. They followed that up another draw and managed their only victory of the season two games later, before battling division leaders Winkler to a 1-0 result.

“There is enough talent in this team to compete in this division,” Bergen said.

In the final eight games of the season, the team played to a record of 1-4-3, while battling some of the best teams in division one.

“We would be lying to ourselves if we said we were there right from the beginning of the year,” Bergen said.

“There was a lot of new players as well, that has to be considered. It was a lot of players that haven’t played together, so that’s a big factor as well.”

In other action around the MMSL, the division three Hanover Sting have one game remaining, and are sitting in fourth place. The highest they can finish is third.

In the fourth division, the Hanover Strikers will finish at the top of the table, with Landmark FC in ninth. In the fifth division Hanover United will be in the middle of the table.