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Legends clinched their 3rd SPL Veteran title in 4 years

emerald 005
Carlos Mozer & Pascal Olmeta

Lions, it was strange weather last Sunday as despite being close to December it was a summer day with a blue sky and 25 degrees. We were up against the Emerald (last year champion) who could keep us away from winning our 3rd SPL Veteran title in 4 years ! For that, we had to lose 17-0 and Emerald brought Fafa (SPL senior goal scorer of last season in their team) aiming to make it happen…

[ VETERAN ] Emerald 2 – 0 Shanghai Lions FC

We started very good as we managed to block the attacks with solid defense and good saves from Laurent our stand in goalie ! James in fine form for the last couple of games even got a chance to give us the lead after a great pass from Thomas. Jerome got a yellow after he ended up in a scrum with his opponent but he stayed composed and disciplined for the rest of the game.

In the next 20 we got more possession and Emerald was less threatening Bob hit the cross bar with a powerful strike !

In the third twenty minutes it was a bit harder as Emerald has physical strong players and the battle in the midfield was fierce however our defense was strong and covered most of the attacks and Masa-san our right back was on fire winning all the headers and defended like a rock.

In the last 20 minutes we thought we had won the game when Bob went all alone one on one to the Emerald keeper however at the end he slowed down and so did his shot… it was an easy pick up for the keeper ! With 10 minutes to go disaster struck as by a corner Francois was pushed to the ground making Fafa a free man to score with a header from nearby the goal. It was harsh on us as a draw would be a fair result. Instead Fafa too fast for our older defenders made it 2-0 for Emerald.

Despite the loss we had smiles on our faces as we were Champions ! It was a tight race this season as Japan had equal points but our goal difference was 14 goals better at the end and Emerald ended two points behind us !

 

The beer tasted good after the match ! Well done Legends and thank you Pascal for coming out to watch the match !

 

Cheers
Freek

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