Legends lost in the last seconds against Japan FC
Last sunday, we were up against Shanghai Japan FC. A team well known for their speed and high fitness level. We a had great group of motivated legends and our strategy was to make sure Japan wouldn’t score first for as long as we could.
It meant that we played more defensive to make sure we were not surprised by a quick Japanese counter. We did give a couple of corners away but could defend those well so it stayed 0-0 after 20 minutes.
In the second 20 minutes, we played our best football of the match as Japan was showing a few cracks in their system… This resulted with Pierre & Mamdouh coming very close to score. Japan was pushed back by our positioning and pressing. When Peter tried his luck with a low shot from distance, it surprised the Japanese keeper as it got a bounce on the uneven field.
With the wind in our back, we started the third 20 minutes with high expectations. But instead of staying compact and play defensive, we were sending missiles to our forwards most of the time flying over them due to the wind. By doing this we exposed ourselves to quick Japanese counter attacks and before we knew it, they scored twice with fast combinations and good finishing. This was the end of our tactical game plan however did respond quick with a beautiful strike of Germain to make it 2-2.
In the last 20 minutes, we did have a couple of tired legs but were using our substitutes to add fresh energy in the game. Japan pushed for the win as they already lost one league match but we scored on a counter with a beautiful strike of Peter to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes on the clock.
Japan didn’t show any signs of tired legs and kept running at us with their defenders pushing forward. We didn’t deal well and failed to stop them in their build up and they scored with a cross from the left and a tip in from close range… 3-3!
As if that was not enough, with less than 30 seconds on the clock we again failed to deal with their passes and give them too much time to combine and to our horror they score the winner.
[ SPL V ] Japan FC 4-3 Shanghai Lions FC
Credit to Japan for never gave up and for us all we could do afterwards was to drink a few beers and reflect how it was possible we gave away a 3-2 lead & lost in the last seconds. Never too old to learn from our mistakes & we will improve next time we play Japan FC.
Next Sunday, we will play our old rivals the Marlins in Jinqiao at 14:00. We are looking forward to a good game of football.
Cheers
Freek
