While the Lions had won the previous edition for the 1st time ever, it was quite frustrating to see so many Lions’ players not being able to play in the Santa Cup 2020 for various reasons. A pity as this tournament has become a real tradition… 10 years now that we play with the Santa hats in Shanghai in a super fun and friendly mood. A perfect way to celebrate the arrival of Christmas and the end of the year.

With 15 minutes before the tournament kick-off, we had only 5 players… Luckily, we managed to take the Japan FC captain on loan for the tournament. For our first match, we were playing Super 48. We got a few opportunities to score but found it hard to hit the target… On their side, they had one counter but their effort was saved. It stayed at 0-0.

In the second game against PF united, we had Fabi on the team. We played him on top and he did well setting up other players to score. It was Nikko who after two earlier efforts gave us a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, we dropped a bit our focus. At the end of the game, we didn’t clear a ball in our box and scored an own goal… 1-1 as the final score 🙁

In the third game, we were up against Wellington. We played much better but couldn’t convert so it stayed 0-0.

In the fourth game, we were up against the Bulls who were eager to win the tournament. Both teams defended well. Not so many scoring opportunities… another 0-0.

In the last group stage game, we played Scotland. Everything worked out well for the Lions with fluent football style. Fabi gave us the lead after a penalty. Soon he scored the 2-0 on a fast counter with a great thru ball from Julia. After a superb save from our Japanese goalie, we went on flying scoring another 2 goals! 4-0 victory over Scotland in just 15 minutes.

In our last match, we were up against the strong Chinese team and we showed our character. After 8 minutes, our opponent changed its whole team bringing another 7 fresh players on. We stayed focused in the back trying to launch Fabi with two players on him all the time. It worked well as Fabi finally scored the well deserved 1-0 lead… No way we would let the lead go! After the final whistle, we were happy with the 3rd place result out of 12 teams.

This 3rd place in the Santa Cup 2020 edition was achieved with a very thin squad who shown great spirit during the whole tournament. Well done Julia, Matze, Manu, Yang, Mehdi, Fabi, Nikko, and our Japanese goalie friend. Last but not the least, let me share a small video of the event we organized the day before for the SPL Youth. All is said when you watch the smile on their face.

Cheers
Freek

For this Santa Cup 2019 edition, the setting could not be better with superb weather for the month of December on the fantastic green natural grass field of Wellington college. 12 teams from all over the world playing with Santa hats in great friendly and respectful spirit… Amazing! Believe me, this is a unique tournament where we respect any color of the skin, any race, and culture… you cannot find that back in your home country! So honestly, I was a bit sad while organizing this tournament to see the Lions had the least players of all the 12 teams. In my view, it’s about giving back and show appreciation of what you have and share with others!

So we only had 7 players to start with Sylvain coming directly from M1nt… As we were short in number, the president had to start as a goalkeeper. The positive of it was that all the players that came were highly motivated. As we were playing all the top 6 teams in the league we knew it was not going to be easy especially with only 7 players and 6 games in total!

For the 1st game, we were up against the Bulls and we beat them 2-0 which was a good start especially in a tournament! After we played Wellington A and Wellington B and beat them respectively 3-0 and 8-0. After that, we got the main game of the day against Emerald. With Romain in goal and Terao in the squad, we were ready to give them a hard time. We got a penalty which Bob took but a great save from their keeper kept them in the race! They were dangerous on counter-attacks with Fafa but most of his efforts went wide. We took the lead with a great ball in from Andrei finished by Bob and a good save from Romain first time ever goalie gave us the three points! After we played Japan in our final group stage match. We were already number one in the group because Bulls tied with Emeralds so it was not our best but we won 1-0!

The final of the Santa Cup 2019 was against England as they were top in the other group! In only 15 minutes we beat them 5-0 with a great first “chip” goal after 3 minutes from Andrei. Afterward, we controlled the match and played really well as a team with plenty of opportunities and some great goals!

Today was a superb performance of a small group of legends with hardly any subs but clean sheets in the whole tournament and some great goals! I am proud of the players today! It’s the first time for the Lions to win the Santa Cup! So for the people who came, you are LEGENDS !!!

Cheers
Happy Freek

The Lions crash out of the second round of Chen Yi Cup conceding the winner in the last minute of the game.

[ Chen Yi Cup ] Shanghai Lions FC 2 – 3 Athletic United

It was an early kick off on a rainy day but all players made it on time with the help of Didi ! The field was slippery due to the rain and not easy to play on. In the first 15 minutes we kept most of the possession and our Chinese opponent decided to sit back. We got a wake up call when a simple pass went straight to the opponent and we got 3 defenders out of position and faced a 3 vs 1 situation which they finished easy to make it 0-1. Soon we found ourselves in more trouble as we let them shoot on the wet pitch and the ball slipped under Robin our goalie. We got plenty of free kicks and corners to come back in the match but waisted them all…

During half time we took the chance to point out the weak points and knew we had 35 minutes left to come back in the match ! Amavi was brought down right at the edge of the penalty box and Pat (our sweeper) came up to blast the ball in the left side of the goal. Thing started to look better for us especially when the Chinese team got a player send off after a challenge on Benji and a bad word to the referee. With three minutes on the clock to play we got a free kick on the right and Yohan curled the ball towards Fabi and Pat… It was Pat who scored the equalizer with a good header 2-2 ! We smelled blood and went for a third goal however we got a reality check again when we gave away a totally unnecessary free kick on the left side of the box in the last minute. Their best player, the No. 9 was surely not going to cross that ball but shoot it… He did it and blasted the ball in the top of the net ! It was a real pity as all the goals we conceded we gave them away by our mistakes and we could easily have made it to the third round of the Chen Yi Cup.

We will try to do better next year !

Cheers
Freek

Lions, here is our draw for the 1st round of Chen Yi Cup 2019.  We are playing 阁凌达 (Gelingda) this coming weekend.

Schedule of Chen Yi Cup 2019

• 1st round: May 11th & 12th, 2019
• 2nd round: May 25th & 26th, 2019
• 1/4 final: June 01st, 2019
• 1/2 final: July 06th, 2019
• Final: August 17th, 2019

Here is a little bit about the name of cup… It was named after the Mr. ChenYi / 陈毅 (1901-1972), communist general and politician, Marshal of PLA from 1955, Mayor of Shanghai in 1950s, PRC foreign minister 1958-1972. There is a Chen Yi square in Shanghai which is located on the Bund near Nanjing East road with a 5.6 meters memorial bronze statue in the middle.

Let’s do it, Lions ! ✊🏼