It was a super weekend for the Lions

[ SIFL ] Shanghai LIONS 7-1 Oranje FC

It was excellent weather and playing condition were perfect last Saturday ! We were up against the dutch, Oranje FC in the SIFL. Our strength on the day was our excellent bench as we had a big and motivated squad. As for Oranje FC, they tried to keep the clean-sheet as long as they could. In the first 25 minutes we created some opportunities but failed to finish it off, shots went just wide or were blocked by their goalie. On the rare occasions that the Dutch were coming over the middle line we took advantage by quick counters. Azz opened the score on such an occasion and just before half time he scored our second.

In the second half we focused on scoring more goals as the goal difference is always important at the end of the season. All players coming off the bench made an impact first Nicolas who kept his goal scoring pace in tact as he scored twice followed by Gwen who almost wanted to retire from football after his goal ! Our debutant Jona also found the net and Kevin failed to score from a very close range. A slip of concentration gave an opportunity to the Oranje FC which they happily took as they made it 6-1. Last but not least our young local player Xu Ling scored as well to make the final score 7-1 for the Lions.

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[ SPL ] Shanghai LIONS 7-1 Marlins FC

On Sunday the weather was still good 22 degrees which was pretty warm for middle of  November. Again we had a large squad and again the hungry bench proved to make a big impact on the game however our opponent were our old rivals the Marlins so we knew we were up for a tough game. Our plan was to play compact and patiently wait for one or two counter attack. It went well in the early stages as our defend stood well and we got a few fast counters. However the Marlins took the lead after we couldn’t clear the ball.

The second half talk we focused on being positive as we knew we can turn things around. We quickly equalized by a great header from Fabie and the Marlins started to show some cracks mainly because we upped the tempo of the game and their midfield imploded. Felix took on their defense coming free on his left foot and had no problem to put us ahead. Jona scored again 5 minutes later another debut goal from him with a blast that the Marlins goalie only could see going in as it was a great strike. Nicolas proved his killer instinct as he scored again as well. By now the Marlins collapsed and we kept trying to score more goals. Good old Tomas scored twice and laid one off to Xu Ling. At the end of the game all of us were not sure about the final score as we scored so many in just 45 minutes that we lost track, however in the end it stopped at 7-1 and a well deserved historic win over the Marlins was a fact !

Our strength on the day was our bench and our combination of experienced Legends and 3 young players who all played very well combined with an inform Dim and rock solid defense and a very motivated (seems he got a good reason) Azzeddine ! Well done Lions !

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Two 7-1 wins surely lifted our spirits now let’s all come to the training and work even harder for the big games ahead of us ! Coming weekend we play Reunited on Saturday and the Legends will play the Super 48 Master Tournament !

It is good to be a Lion !

Cheers
Freek