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off season game vs. K Lions

Flying Lions FC at off season menu

If you think that during the off season our players are all down on the beach in Sanya, than we are sorry to disappoint you. When Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Flying Lions FC asked us for a friendly match, we didn’t hesitate to say YES. 

Flying Lions FC is one of the top semi-pro teams in Shanghai. Founded in 2012, they managed to climb up the ranks in the SFA / CFA system. Sponsored by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries they have a great structure and management team. Now, the Flying Lions FC are playing in the SFA Shanghai Premier League A.

Among their recent successes,  they won the Shanghai Chen Yi Cup twice in the last two years! Both Shanghai Lions and Japan FC were invited by the SFA to compete in the 2019 Chen Yi Cup as the only foreign teams before the pandemic. A rare honor for amateur football club like us.

This off season match was played on the AKS field in Puxi. Lucky (or not), the field and the goals were smaller than usual. We had a problem in defense with Pat still injured, Jack away in the US and Romain K not available… The first thing you want against an opponent like is a strong defense!

We had no answer to their quick pace and passing and soon found ourselves trailing behind. However, we felt it was due to our mentality as part of our team thought they would have a nice and easy summer evening kick around. Against an opponent like that, there is no easy way and you need to fight for 90 minutes to limit the damage.

At the end of the first half we got more composure and understood better what was our task and game plan. However, it proved difficult to pose any threat on their goal.

Our half time talk was not nice… This was part of learning and stepping up the game. In the first 15mn (while Flying Lions fielded 11 fresh players), we did play well and could hold their attacks and come close to score. As it was still a friendly,  we fielded all our youth players as they are the future of our club… At a point in the match, we had Ryan, Yu Yang, Yu Xuan, Nicholas & Seiwa playing against one of Shanghai top teams.

A nice/good experience for the team for an off season game. Yes, we lost by many goals but the difference in level was obvious and probably too big! After the game, comments were still positive asking to play them again.

We appreciated the fairplay and discipline of the Flying Lions FC. Hope they will do well in the SFA/CFA leagues going forward.

Looking forward our next game against them!

Cheers
Freek

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