1899 Runners up at Harder 13 Cup

1899 Hoffenheim finished runners up at the Harder 13 Cup in Mannheim's SAP-Arena last night. Under assistant manager André Trulsen, TSG went down 5-2 to Karlsruhe SC. On a more positive note, Daniel Haas was named the tournament's best goalkeeper, while Knowledge Musona was top scorer with four goals.

Despite not going all the way, Trulsen was happy with the how the tournament had gone. “We wanted to give the fans an exciting tournament, and I think we did that”, said a satisfied Truller, in charge of the team while head coach Holger Stanislawski watched from the stands.

1899 reach the semis

The team's first group game was against 2. Bundesliga team Eintracht Frankfurt, and it was an exciting spectacle to get the competition underway. A brace from Sven Schipplock and a goal from Fabian Johnson were cancelled out by three strikes by Eintracht, meaning that Armin Veh's team held 1899 to a draw. In their next game, TSG were up against fellow Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg. After conceding an early goal from Ja-Cheol Koo, Truller's team managed to get back into the game through United States junior international Joseph Gyau. The Wolves went back in front somewhat fortuitously, and although 1899 laid siege to the Wolfsburg goal, they could not find an equaliser. However, with a draw and a loss, TSG qualified for the semi-finals after Wolfsburg beat Frankfurt in the last group game.

Kaiserslautern brushed aside

Hoffenheim's opponents in the semi-final were 1.FC Kaiserslautern, who had eased through their qualification from group B. As Wolfsburg had already been beaten 4-2 by Karlsruhe in the first semi-final, the incentive was there for TSG to reach the final. The players responded perfectly to the motivation and went 3-0 inside the first ten minutes, thanks to goals from Gyau, Dominik Kaiser and Musona. Adam Nemec pulled one back for Lautern, before Schipplock restored 1899's three-goal lead. Adam Nemec found the net again to make it 4-2, but Musona hit back with two more strikes to round off a 6-2 win.

KSC too strong

In front of a crowd of 12,000 in the SAP-Arena, Karlsruhe SC and Hoffenheim met in the Harder 13 Cup final. TSG began the match in determined mood and went 1-0 up through another goal from youngster Gyau. KSC came storming back, however, and had raced into a 4-1 lead by the middle of the second half. Musona's goal threatened a comeback, but Alexander Iashvili, later to be named player of the tournament, put the seal on a 5-2 victory for the 2. Bundesliga side.

Players who featured for 1899 Hoffenheim

Daniel Haas, Koen Casteels, Boris Vukcevic, Knowledge Musona, Sven Schipplock, Joseph-Claude Gyau, Daniel Williams, Fabian Johnson, Dominik Kaiser, Edson Braafheid.