Lions,
Some games you will never remember and some games you will never forget…
Last Saturday was one of those. The playing conditions were almost impossible due to rain poor which started since Friday and would never stop throughout the entire game ! The opponent were the Azzuris and they were very motivated to give us a hard time. In the first few minutes both teams realized that the ball wouldn’t roll and would get stuck in the mud. The lions got a very early lead when the Azzuri tried to defend but forgot the field conditions. Azz had an easy tip in for the 1-0. However the Azzuri started to put pressure with the wind in their back and took advantage of a defensive hesitation of the Lions and scored the equalizer. Suddenly the Azzuri smelled blood and where the Lions continues to try play football on the impossible pitch the Azzuri figured out that its was all about fighting spirit, hard tackles and long balls in the box. They got their reward on a good counter attack and took a 1-2 lead into half time. With the rain pooring and knowing that only a win would do for the Championship we knew that only one option was left for the last 45 minutes, to fight until we would drop dead !
All the Azzuri could do in the second half was trying to defend their lead. The lions kept pushing forward and got several corners and free –kicks. Fresh legs game of the Lions bench which was a big help in this game as the pitch was so heavy. It was a free kick from Azz flying direct to the head of Charles who was faced with his back to the goal but when the bal skit his head the ball ended in the top corner. Indeed Charles doesn’t score a lot of goals but as long as he scores important ones we are happy with that ! His celebration lasted until Sunday ! Now our spirits were lifted and we smelled blood ! It was another brilliant free kick of Azz who surprised the Azzuri defense by instead of crossing the ball into the box playing it wide to Erwin who didn’t hesitate with his left foot in front of his family watching to score the winner !
When the final whistle was there it was the end of one of the best 45 minutes display of fighting spirit by the Lions and all what was left was a happy feeling and one step closer to the SIFL title ! Credit goes to the Azzuris as well who gave it all and never gave up. After the game Dani checked his new activity device connected to his Iphone and its stated that he ran 40km during the game, we wonder where it was made…….most likely in China !
Now we have three games left and we will focus on them one by one ! Our next game will be versus the Krauts on May 10th if we continue to work hard at the trainings and keep our spirit and focus in place we can make another step into the right direction !
On Sunday the Veteran Lions played under the same hard condition versus a Japanese team called Super 48. The Lions were low on numbers but managed a solid 7-1 win helped by 4 Lions U17 players who played excellent. Jamie the Lions goalie on the day managed to score from a corner in the last minute of the game. The cross came from Yuito our 15 year old Japanese player right on Jamies head ! Great way to end a game and great to see Jamie score after his long struggle with his knee operation !
It’s good to be a Lion ! Cheers Freek