Legends say farewell to Julia J.
This Sunday, our legends were playing against the Chinese team Old Guns. Most importantly, it was the last game of Julia J. who’s leaving us to study in the United States. Once more, we had a very thin squad for that game with especially many players missing in defense. Our regular goalie Clement was also missing and Ben came back from Ningbo as substitute goalie. Thanks to him for that.
Same as against the Bulls, we started very badly… It’s kind of becoming a habit and we’ll need soon to find a solution to this problem. Anyway, within 10 minutes we already conceded 2 goals. They were in a sense evitable but it’s true that Old Guns had 2 or 3 good players making differences slicing through our “experimental” defense.
The 2nd 20 minutes were of the same caliber with the Old Guns adding 2 more goals to make it 4-0… As usual in these cases, we started to talk and complain more than play. From the bench, it was not really nice to watch as we were obviously falling into their trap.
On the next break, coach Bob put everybody’s head back in place telling everyone to forget about the score, stop talking and try to enjoy the game a little bit. Surprisingly, I worked like wonder and we finally started to play and combine together. Tomas quickly scored a goal. Julia also came close to score from a long-range short who ended up a few centimeters from the post. Without explanation, our opponents started to get nervous and would have deserved 2 red cards… As often, the referee was not to the level and oriented only giving yellow cards… Annoying but we managed to keep our heads cool.
In the 4th 20mn, Bob decided to push further playing with only 3 defenders in the back. It kind of became “hurrah football” with the ball going from one box to the other. Tomas did scored another goal and came closed to a 3rd one but failed on his one on one versus the opponent goalie. Adrien came close as well as his long-range shoot got barely touched by the keeper… still enough as the ball ended up on the post. We pushed and gave everything but the score didn’t change anymore with a 2-4 defeat on the final whistle.
[ SPL V ] Shanghai Lions FC 2-4 Old Guns
Another 2 face game for our legends… Really poor and losing ourselves in unnecessary talks in the 1st half of the game (4-0 down). On the opposite, very pleasant to watch and collectively strong in the 2nd part of the game (2-0 for us). Anyway as Mike said, “We win as a team we lose as a team”.
After the game, it was time to give a few presents and take a few pictures with Julia.
Thank you Julia! You brought a lot to the Lions in all youth, senior and legends teams. You are an amazing player and it was a big pleasure to play with you. Thanks for everything and wish you all the best for the future. Please never forget the Lions family.
Cheers
FL
