First team beat Shanghai Marlins

It was a great day to play this senior football game under 22 degrees, a clear sky, and a good pitch. It was our first match in our new kit and we had a lot of motivated players showing up 1 hour before the match. After the team picture and warming up we were ready to go against our old rival the Marlins. It was good to see both teams had plenty of youngsters trying out to play at the senior level.

[ SIFL ] Shanghai Lions FC 4-0 Shanghai Marlins FC

Well usually we are slow starters but not this time from the kick-off we showed aggression and hunger for the ball and within one minute we had a perfect fast break on the right with a good cross from Kyle well finished by Romain… 1-0 for the Lions.

After this, the game started to evolve and the speed of play was very fast the referee was lost couldn’t coop with the speed, and made poor decisions for both teams. Marlins tried to launch their fast young forwards with long balls helped by the wind in the back and it caused us some problems we gave away several corners which we dangerous and a few free-kicks as well. We rushed too much ourselves and forget our passing game and we were looking for long balls as well. However, we were helped by the Marlins when a cross from the right was headed into their own goal 2-0 Lions. It gave us a good cushion at half time and we could bring in fresh legs in the second half.

With the wind in our back, we were looking for the third goal to finish the game. We got a free-kick at the perfect spot right on the box edge in the middle several players stood up to claim the free-kick but it was Patrick who took control and placed the ball low in the right corner to make it 3-0. The icing on the cake came from Cyril who just came back from injury and shot from far out as he saw the keeper off his line and smashed the ball over the keeper in the net! Perfect 4-0 for the Lions. We got plenty of opportunities to score a few more but failed to finish them so it stayed 4-0. Credit to the Marlins with a young squad to keep playing and trying to get back in the game.

Well done Lions! Next up is training on Tuesday and Cosmos on Saturday 09:00 kick-off.

Cheers
Freek