Lions write history
Lions,
We had a very busy weekend with two Cup finals and two closing tournaments!
[SIFL Cup] Shanghai Lions 2-1 ReUnited
We will remember our road to the finals as in the quarters we barely had a squad against Voodoo but we pulled it off with a lot of new players and a goal by Jack. The semi final versus Shooters was our best game of the season. We crushed them with total football 3-0 !
The final versus ReUnited was a different game they had their fast three African players trying to cause havoc to our defense. It cost Jerome his hamstring but luckily we had Fabi in stand by. The key for this game was to score first as we don’t wanted to open up for their counter attacks. It happened with a crazy 30m (at least) shot from Zohan in the top left corner. All looked good until they equalized by slicing thru our defense. Suddenly our heads went down and we started to play bad. God bless we made it to half time to think it over and 45 minutes left to write history !
Second half we were better created several chances but failed to score….! Two heroic saves of Francois our stand in goalie kept us in the race. We got our reward in the 89th minute for our never give up mentality. Before we knew it there was a mountain of Lion Players on the field we almost crushed Johnny in the pile up but all survived ! Kevin couldn’t get enough and let play for another 6 minutes ! Final whistle and time to party !
[SPL Cup] Hawks 1-0 Shanghai Lions
Very hard opponent all the good and fast Chinese players combined with a few Brazilians. The Lions played their best game of the season helped by Nicolas our goalie who came over from Singapore.
Especially the first half we controlled the game by a good passing game. In this tight game it was obvious that the game could be decided by one goal only. In the second half the hawks got their goal on the break slicing thru our left defense. We knew it was very tough to come back but we never gave up both Charles and Jeff out of all people had a good chance for the equalizer. We lacked the firing power upfront.
Joel next season make sure to play a final and book your long holiday accordingly ! In a final you need that little extra to win you can call it luck if you want!
The season 2011/2012 is over and we can conclude that it was very active Lions year with many positives to report:
- SIFL 3rd place
- Hebiguchi Cup semi final
- SIFL Cup winner
- Closing Tournament finalist
- SPL 3rd place
- SPL Cup finalist
- SPL Closing tournament finalist
Our target and aim is to do better next season as that will give us more silverware and titles! We are very pleased with the start of the Young Lions team and the expansion of our Lions family with new players thru out the season. Hope we can keep our positive spirit for a long time and that each player enjoy to be Lion.
It’s essential that our senior players pass on their experience to the younger ones because they will be our Lions future.
Enjoy the break and if you stay in Shanghai keep training and play in our own 7-a-side tournament every Wed from June 27th to Aug. 15th with 6 other teams!
Cheers
Lions Management
