Legends win to keep in tittle race
Last Sunday, our legends were up against Shanghai England FC. It was a must win to keep in the tittle race considering our negative results for the last 3 games. Everyone came on time which was important considering we had a small squad of only 13 players. Last but not the least, Waigaoqiao pitch was in great condition for once…
For the 1st quarter, we decided to play in 4-2-3-1 with Germain & Hira as center-mid. Before the game, it was highlighted that our fitness was the enemy… Considering also that England FC had a larger squad of 15+ players. Therefore, the order was to make the ball & our opponents run as much as we could in our “low moments”.
Actually, we started as a bullet! Within 3mn, scored with a beautiful power strike on our 1st attempt just outside the box. We could have scored a 2nd one 2mn later after a run from Pierre on the left side of the box… He displayed nicely a low ball on the other side of the box to Nicolas… Unfortuntaly for us, he hitted the crossbar. While we left nothing to England FC; we could have scored 2 or 3 goals with good runs on our both wings with either Mamdouh, Pierre or Nicolas. Last 5mn were a bit more messy on our side… No troubles and we ended-up this 1st quarter with 1-0 lead.
We started 2nd quarter poorly too like we were still at the break… Our passes & controls were gone. Therefore, a bit under pressure and difficult getting the ball out clean of our defense. It got better after 7/8mn as we finally managed to make the ball run… Probably our best spell of the game as we kept control of the ball; attacked when we wanted to… We could definitly have scored 1 or 2 during that time but England keeper was in fire and stopped all our attempts with either class or sometime luck.
In the 3rd quarter, legs started to feel heavy on both side and the rythm went down… However, one of our pre-game strategy paid-off with Pierre taking the corners while our both central defenders always coming into the box. Easy as said with Lolo heading a sweet corner from Pierre into the net. Then, nothing special until the last 5mn where we kind of lost our composure as too many heads were heating-up. As I said before, it’s normal having “low moments” in a game… The key when this occurs is to collectively see it, play simple and make the ball run until stamina is back. Anyway, we ended-up this 3rd quarter without damage with 2-0 lead.
In the 4th quarter, the objective was to keep the clean-sheet. Overall, we were in control but we got unlucky in 2 occurences. First, England FC managed to score on a deflected attempt just outside the box. Second, we lost our lung-man Germain having to leave the pitch with a painful knee. Unlike the last few games, we kept calm and didn’t really conceded much except another header for Lolo who didn’t go far from our own net… After, seems that our opponents were all boiled too not able putting us under pressure anymore.
[ SPL V ] Shanghai Lions FC 2-1 Shanghai England F.C.
Not a perfect game but a win still which allows us to keep in the tittle race. Let’s not forget that we had a small squad and a few key playmakers missing. Next game in 2 weeks against Marlins for the revenge.
Cheers
FL
