Legends end the season 2023/2024 in style

Last Sunday, it was our last game of a long season; which we intended to finish in style. We were up against Lao Pao and for the occasion we were happy being allowed to play at “Pudong Football Stadium“; the home pith of Shanghai SIPG.

The only issue was the weather as it was super hot and our squad was thin with only 13 players due to the dragon boat festival holidays. Lao Pao seemed to have close to two squads and we were worrying a bit running out of steam during the game.

Luckily, the game started a bit slow with Lao Pao opting for ball possession & short passes while we made the mistake to play long balls… Obviously after a couple of runs, our forwards were out of breath in the heat. We did get a few shots on target but they were easy catch for the Lao Pao goalie.

In the 2nd quarter, we changed our game as we stopped the long balls and played good combination football. Arnold on the right wing was most of the time free and we took advantage of this. On one of his runs, he got fouled and he took the free kick to his surprise he saw the ball flying in the goal after everyone else missed it. We kept making good combinations and Lao Pao had to chase us this time to get the ball back. John who was very active in the midfield with Peter had a great assist to set Happy free and he scored the 2-0. Our players spirit was lifted and we were looking for more this. It was a great assist from Jonas who set free Happy to make it 3-0.

In the 3rd quarter, we dropped our level a bit and instead of passing and keeping possession many of us opted to go on a solo run. That was not a good idea in the heat and Lao Pao almost scored from a free header. With one minute on the clock, they did score to make it 3-1. The coach emphasized to change our playing style in the last 20 minutes to play more simple with more combinations.

In the last quarter, we scored a beautiful goal starting from the back followed by 6 passes up to Happy on the left who set up running Mamdouh who finished in style.