What a beautiful Sunday !
Lions,
The sky was blue and the temperature around 22 degrees and the pitch was green ! We had a big game in the SPL against Gremio a strong opponent with a mix of Chinese and Brazilian and African players. We had three new players in our squad one of them was only 15 years old Chris and he came all the way from Suzhou to play.
We started a bit nerous and Gremio capitalized within the first 5 minutes as we let one of the fast African strikers go one on one with Ethan. However after we were 1-0 down we started to control the midfield and took the game in our hand. We had our strongest performance of the game in the last 20 minutes of the first half. First we got a penalty which Dave converted with his new orange boots. Our second goal was a great build up from the midfield and crossed in well nicely finished by the inform Tomas to give us the lead. Radouanne our new forward had his one on one with the Gremio goalie and stranded but Tomas was there to score his second on the day ! It was 3-1 at half time and a well deserved lead. Second half we kept control over the midfield and should have gotten a penalty when Dave was fouled in the box. On the other side Gremio had few counter attacks and it was a surprise strike slicing thru Aki and Garret which brought Gremio back in the game. In the end we held on and got a well deserved win. It was a very positive team performance with all the new players playing very well. We have 4 games left in the SPL and lets win them all ! Next up are the Cowboys at Jinqiao coming Sunday 1300 kick off !
On the other field at Waigaoqiao the Legends were playing a friendly against FC Ferie a new Japanese side. In the first 20 minutes the game was even but we opened the score with a good cross from Freek finding Alp who had no problem to finish it ! In the second 20 minutes we didn’t manage to score and it was obvious we needed to make some tactical changes. We pushed Jeremy to the midfield and Jamie in the back and above all we put Fred on the bench. Therese our new female player from Norway got the reward for all her runs and finished nice in the corner after she found herself one on one with the Keeper. A classic legendary one two between Jamie and Freek also let to a goal as the goalie couldn’t stop the powerful shot of our President ! We scored 4 goals in 20 minutes to make it 5-1 while Fred was watching from the side line ! In the last 20 minutes we managed to score another 3 goals but not by Fred our striker……..he left Waigaoqiao right after the final whistle whereas the other Legends enjoyed the sunshine and the ice cold beers. Laid our new player had his singing performance on the table with a slow start he sang himself through a new edition of Hotel California ! The Legends next game will be on April 26th1100 kick off versus England.
In the SIFL we will play Reunited 3 for the SIFL semi cup final on Saturday !
Let’s all come to the training where Azzeddine and Simon will take extra care of you and get ready for the big games ahead of us !
Cheers Freek
