Americans Abroad

Thomas goal propels Lübeck to 2-0 victory over Hamburg.

(Thursday, October 7, 2004) -- American striker Jacob Thomas scored the decisive tally, helping visiting VfB Lübeck to a 2-0 victory, snapping the three-game winning streak of the "young talents" of Hamburger SV in Germany's third-division Regionalliga Nord.

Thomas started things off for Lübeck when he found net with a header in the fourth minute for his second goal of the season. Lübeck's second goal came in the 35th minute when Lars Kampf scored.

Thomas put in a full 90 minutes, while American defender Ian Joy started and played 65 minutes for Hamburg (7-2-1, 22) which dropped into a first-place tie with Holsten Kiel (7-3-1). Holsten has played an extra game.

Lübeck (5-4-2, 17) is in sixth place.

American midfielder Joe Enochs and VfL Osnabrück lost 3-2 to last-place FC Chemnitz. After drawing even at 1-1 in the 14th minute, things went sour for Osnabrück and the hosts found tehmselves down 3-1 with six minutes to play. Osnabrück's last goal came off of an own goal two minutes later.

Enochs started and went 90 minutes for Osnabrück (4-3-3, 15) which fell from seventh to 10th place, but would have been in fifth with a win.

Union Berlin hosted Borussia Dortmund Amateurs Saturday and lost 3-1, their sixth defeat in a row. American striker Ryan Coiner did not see action in the game for Berlin (2-8-1, 7), 17th in the 19-team league. The bottom five will be relegated.

In the Regionalliga Süd, American defender Josh Grenier went the distance for Tus Koblenz which continued to impress with a convincing 4-0 victory at home against SC Pfullendorf. Koblenz (5-2-2, 17) is in third place.

Former U.S. international Michael Mason started off the scoring for SV Elversberg and the club coached by American Brent Goulet won 2-1 over host Regensburg with its American midfielder Grover Gibson. Last season, Mason and Gibson were teammates at Elversberg before Gibson moved to Regensburg (4-3-2, 14), which is currently sixth in the table. Elversberg (4-2-3, 15) leapfrogged Regensburg into fifth.

American defender Pellegrino Matarazzo and SV Wehen (3-2-4, 13) defeated VfR Aalen 2-1 Friday night and moved up to eight place. Matarazzo started and played 55 minutes for the home team and picked up a yellow card in the game. American striker Jonathan Cummings did not see action for Aalen.

Four days later, Morales made his home debut, starting and playing 70 minutes in a 2-0 victory over Esbjerg FB.

In his final two years at UMass (2001-02), Morales had 13 goals and 22 assists for 48 points as the Minutemen compiled a cumulative 27-12-3 record.

Waltrip played four years (1996-99) at University of South Florida and was Conference USA "Player of the Year" in 1998. He had 34 goals, 36 assists (third in school history) and 104 points (seventh) for the Bulls.

Harris King, an American from South Carolina, has lived in Germany for five years. He is a Business English lecturer at the University of Bamberg. E-mail Harris King.