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Legends made it hard for themselves vs. Ferie FC

The summer is clearly gone as temperatures dropped in Shanghai-style from 29 last Thursday to 16 on Sunday. For this game vs. Ferie FC, we had a solid squad with both Mamdouh and Frank making their comebacks after long-lasting injuries. We also had Vincent making his debut for the Legends.

We opted for a 4-4-2 start but it didn’t work out well partly because our opponent Ferie FC stayed back with only 1 player upfront vs our 4 defenders… Then, we started to run into our own spaces and didn’t keep our positions. On top, we opted for long balls but it didn’t result in any chances. The Ferie FC keeper on his side also did make a couple of good saves.

In the 2nd 20 minutes, we got Samad on the left and it helped us as he stayed wide using the space making good combinations with Tomas and Vincent. It was his effort that broke the deadlock when his shot helped by the wind flew over the Japanese keeper.

In the 3rd 20 minutes, we were looking for more goals and it was a long ball from the back which was nicely header by Nikko to Samad who outplayed his opponent and finished with his second goal. Instead of making a third as we did get plenty of opportunities to get the 3rd goal but instead we helped Ferie FC coming back into the game… Sylvain didn’t realize he was surrounded by a few opponents in front of our defense… One quick pass and their striker blasted the ball into our net.

In the last 20 minutes, we prioritized to settle our defense first as we didn’t want to have another surprise. We did look for our next goal and got many occasions… Haroun came so close after a really good team play his ball came just wide opponent left post. Soon after we had a scramble in Feries’ penalty box with multiple players shooting one after the other until the ball rolled for the feet of Samad who happily scored his 3rd goal and hattrick.

We thought the game was over and made several substitutions but to our horror, we handed another gift to them when we failed to clear the ball in our defense. They scored their 2nd goal. With 2 mn on the clock, we gave them an unnecessary free-kick for their 3rd and last shot of the game. The final shot of the game was for Nikko after a great cross from Nicolas from the right-wing. With the goal wide open Nikko opted to launch the ball into orbit… We have not seen the ball back ever since.

[ SPL V ] Shanghai Lions FC 3-2 Ferie FC

Game statistics

Shanghai Lions FC
    • Possession: 80%
    • Shots: 20
    • Corners: 12
    • Goals: 3
    • Cards: 2 yellow
Ferie FC
    • Possession: 20%
    • Shots: 3
    • Corners: 0
    • Goals: 2
    • Cards: 1 yellow

Mixed feelings after the match… Yes, we got the 3 points but we were not really happy about the way we played. 4 players still made it to Senso and were welcomed by Severino who eased their pain with some good Italian food and wine.

Cheers
Freek

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