Legends go on top of SPLV after a 7-3 win against Emerald FC
Last Sunday, our legends were up against old rival Emerald FC in SPLV. They had a couple of new local players called up and to be honest, we were not sure what to expect. The weather was excellent. No wind and about 14 degrees.
The first 20 minutes were one of the most entertaining first quarter ever witnessed. Our defense misjudged a high ball and underestimated the speed of the Emerald striker so in 5 minutes we were 1-0 down. Two minutes later, Germain took his chance with a long distance shot and it was a perfect strike flying over the keeper in the net to equalize. As if we were not warned enough, we let their striker slalom against four of our players and finish with ease to put us behind again. We kept our composure despite conceding two quick goals and scored a beautiful second goal with multiple passes starting from the back and nicely finished by Pierre. Emerald was still dangerous especially with their fast left winger and skillful forward. However, we took the lead after a corner scrimmage finished by David. Five goals in 20 minutes… talking about entertaining football.
We took the break to reorganize our defense and we thought we fixed the problem but again they slipped through and scored. However, after that we looked in better shape and Pierre scored his second to give us the lead back. 4-3.
In the third quarter, Emerald was less threatening as the high intensity of the beginning of the match did cost a lot of energy. We got a couple of good opportunities but the excellent Emerald goalkeeper stood in the way. Dennis did score to make it 5-3.
In the last 20 minutes, it was one way traffic as we were looking for more goals. We got one by a good converted penalty from Mehdi. And the icing on the cake came from Fred who tried a long rage shot over the keeper. The ball flew into the net and that was the final score 7-3. An entertaining match of football played in good spirit where both teams showed respect for each other.
[ SPLV ] Shanghai Lions FC 7-3 Shanghai Emerald FC
After Japan lost their game later on the day, our legends are now on top of SPLV league with 9 games and 9 wins. Next up will be against Japan and hopefully we can make it 10 out of 10.
Let’s go Legends!
Cheers
Freek
