The (unbelievable) double

After difficult times of austerity and waiting for the date, this year's Hotelcareer Cup took place on 10 March 2013 in Stuttgart. Although the ARCOTEL Camino had trained continuously for the entire year and were also playing the difficult role of favourites, one or two doubtful feelings still reared their ugly heads. How would it go in 2013? Would we meet our expectations and those of our fans?

In drizzly weather, we set out on our way to the Soccer Olymp in Fellbach, where we had been devotedly training for days beforehand. We had a whole host of fans with us from the director to the interns – everyone was represented to support us in our mission to defend the title.

In the first game, we played Mercure Hotel Stuttgart City Center. The war-like black shirts combined with a few really good players and last year's close victory made us stop and think. So we didn't exactly go into this game expecting a win. We didn't dominate from the start, but quickly took the lead making it 1-0. This was just the beginning. We become more confident, although this did mean that we committed one or two fouls. We made up for this, though, and the final score was 2-0. We had cleared the first hurdle.

In the second game we met the other team we were afraid of even though we hadn't played them before. The Le Méridien Stuttgart. A difficult and very tight task, but we were still able to win the match 1-0. Six points were already a good lead.

In the meantime, our fans supported us by doing all of the things that a real fan needs to do to increase morale. Home-made pom-poms, Camino flags and loud cheering were just a small part of the consistent support from our group of fans. They also gave us relaxing massages, provided us with drinks and were simply there for us.

Next we faced the Park Inn by Radisson. Maybe it was the good business cooperation with them that meant we didn't want to get one over on them, but at least by that point we had decided that one point each was also perfectly fine, and the game ended 3-3.

Our final opponent was the Holiday Inn. The statisticians among you may have worked out that with a draw and two wins we would definitely be in the semi-final. Wrong. We needed at least a draw to be certain of winning the group, as Le Méridien and the Mercure Hotel Stuttgart City Center had played really well against the Holiday Inn and beaten them by a large number of goals. When we were 2-1 down just a short while into the game, we had to stop and take a breath, shake ourselves off and then really throw ourselves into it again. It was all or nothing. But then everything went well and we beat the Holiday Inn 6-3. Ten points from four games. We felt that that was a really good result.

The Maritim Hotel, the NH Hotel, the Mercure Hotel and us, the ARCOTEL Camino, were in the semi-final. We had to play against the NH Hotel, and played better than we had done at any point in the tournament. We were concentrated and confident, and won the match 3-0. Unfortunately we also suffered some injuries in the game, above all to our best striker, Bilal Ghazi. In the changing rooms later, our opponent said "our colleague's job was to mark him the whole time, but we'd completely forgotten that on the other side of the pitch there was someone else who was also good with the ball and could score." Yep, you can easily be deceived. But they fought bravely.

WE were in the FINAL! AGAIN! Incredible. It was also incredible that we had to play the Mercure Hotel again. If they'd got this far, they must have got even better, and they definitely had. Both teams, exhausted by this point, gave their all. One – nil. Two – nil just a short time later. We were in the game. Everything was going well until a free kick was given against us just before time, and our opponents scored. It was very close. The clock ticked and the team in black kept running against our defence. Micha, who had been one of the best players in the team throughout the tournament, kept clearing the ball away from the goal from all positions. Then it was over. Over! The ARCOTEL Camino WON the Hotelcareer Cup 2013. Who would have thought it?

The team managed the DOUBLE! It was an all round successful day. THANKS to Sandro, Patrick, Ajet (the best player in the tournament), Youssif, Bilal (top scorer), Micha, Mohamed and Peter, the players in our team. The team would also like to thank the FANS who supported us so brilliantly. We're off to Düsseldorf! To be continued...