Legends beat FC Ferie 4-0
Last sunday, we were up against FC Ferie. It was the last “summer” day in November with still 28 degrees and a blue sky. We had a thinner squad with a couple of players missing for various reasons. But with an early 09:00am kick-off, it was good to see all 14 players showing up. Because of our Japanese opponent we decided to play compact with a higher defense and our attackers helping to defend when we lost the possession.
In our previous two games, we started well but this time we struggled to make good combinations. Because of that, we were looking for the long balls… FC Ferie did get a couple of corners but there they were no real threat to us. We did get some shots but we missed the target. Fred came the closest when his strike hit the cross bar.
In the second 20 minutes, we improved our game a bit and when we made a tactical change by moving Romain to the wing and Nico to the center it proved to be the missing link. Within 2 minutes a strong ball from the midfield found Nico who laid off the ball perfect to Romain on the right and he didn’t hesitate to score with a low strike in the left corner.
In the third 20 minutes, we had our confidence back and played our usual passing game. It was a perfect free kick of David who found Nico’s head and he was happy to see his effort flying in the goal. However, as we knew very well Japanese teams never gave up and it was a super double save of Clement our goalie that kept our clean sheet target alive.
For the final 20 minutes, our priority was to defend our lead and don’t concede. After 5 minutes Mehdi who just came in set Mamdouh free with a great ball who didn’t hesitate to finish and score. Right after, that it was a super launched ball from David which reached Mamdouh on the run and lobbed the ball over the out coming keeper to make it 4-0. Believe it or not a few minutes later he scored his hat-trick which would have been the fastest hat-trick in history of the Lions but to his and our disbelieve the lines man pointed to the referee and told him he spotted a foul whereas Mamdouh just made a perfect shoulder to shoulder block. In the end, we could laugh about it as we knew the three points and the clean-sheet was ours.
[ SPL V ] Shanghai Lions FC 4- 0 FC Ferie
After the match, we all went to our beloved sponsor Italian restaurant Senso to celebrate our victory and the birthday of our President who turned 60 recently. Severino, his crew and family made sure we had a great time with great food and plenty of drinks!
Next week, we will play Strosso at 09:00 am.
Cheers
Freek
