Lions back in action after COVID-19 crisis

It has been a difficult time as right during the CNY holiday we found ourselves in a situation which none of us expected to happen. When COVID-19 virus broke out China took fast-action closing down all the cities and ordered all the people to stay home. With all the school closed it meant that soccer was no option for us as the fields were closed as well! Life without football was hard and it made you realize how much we missed the weekly training and matches together with your friends from all over the world! Sitting/working at home is not good for your fitness level as you surely move less and tend to eat and drink a bit more. For one week you can laugh about it as we were all in the same boat but after two months it’s no longer a joke and a lot of us found ourselves frustrated at home… However, in the last couple of days, the situation has improved a lot in Shanghai. This is contrary to the situation in the rest of the world as now all sports including soccer are halted across the globe on a scale we have never seen in our lifetimes.

You can imagine how happy we were when the Shanghai Government announced last week that sports facilities could re-open to adults only subject temperature checks and proof of Green QR code. We were quick to take this opportunity and booked a field at Qi Yi sports complex and enjoyed our first match of football last Sunday! With a blue sky and 24 degrees and no pollution, you can imagine we played with smiles on our faces!

Yesterday we had our first training session and although we are all still a bit out of shape we are motivated to get our fitness back!

Couple of more training sessions and we will be ready for our first match post COVID-19 virus!

Happy to be back!

Cheers
Freek