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Shanghai Lions Football Club

The Lions are looking forward to a new season !

July 30, 2015 News

Lions,

 

The summer months we always use to refresh our mind and legs. For the brave ones we organize the Lions Summer 7’s at our training pitch as it’s a good way to maintain fitness during the summer break. It is also the time to look forward and set our goals and target for next season.

 

In the SIFL we won our third consecutive championship title last season. That season was very hard as there were only 7 teams in the first division and we ended up playing the top teams 3-5 times which makes it much harder to be motivated all the time for important games. In the end we managed it and hopefully that league will be better next season with 9 teams in the first division. We are on a two season unbeaten run and surely we like to keep the record going strong although it’s obvious that one day we will lose a game we are motivated to win our fourth consecutive title !

 

In the SPL we suffered last season by the absence of several key players who moved back to their home country as well we had a bad start of the season but ended it on a strong note. The positive of the season was the young Lions getting some playing time and especially during the game against ERS they did very well. We will be better prepared this season to not to lose the touch with the SPL early in the season. As well we will ask some older and more experienced Lions to help out on Sunday’s !

 

In the Veteran league the Lions Legends are performing well and setting themselves up against possible Championships game versus Scotland to be held in November. The legends have showed great commitments during the games and trainings and became a major force in the Shanghai Lions Football Club. This segment of the club is also the fastest growing as many players realize that they can still play after 35 ! The oldest legend by now is over 50 so they have many more playing years ahead of them.

 

For the youth we will continue to focus on our trainings on Wednesdays at Century Park. These trainings are held by our own players who have plenty of experience in coaching and trainings. We welcome players boys and girls from 14-18 years old to join the young Lions. We like to prepare them for the big step in their football life from being a junior in becoming a senior player. The SPL is planning to organize an U19 league which the young Lions will participate in for sure. Several youth players got playing time last season in Legend games or in the Senior SPL games and gained valuable experience.

 

In August we will organize friendly games and mix up the teams as its still pre- season as well we will organize our own Lions bootcamp to get our fitness back !

 

The Legends will participate on Sept 5/6 in the Shanghai Masters tournament at SCSC. Last year the Legends won it and they will try again this year and its good to see a lot of Legends showing up in the summer 7’s as fitness is key for the over 40 years old players !

 

Last but not least we will held our third annual Lions Cup in Shanghai on September the 5th . The response have been very good sofar and we have already 16 teams registered for this event. It will be a fun tournament with plenty of entertainment. It will be great to come and watch the games. Just chill out with an ice cold beer and watch the teams battling it out in the heat !

 

Already plenty of activities and the season didn’t even start yet !

 

Its good the be a Lion and lets enjoy another great season of football in Shanghai !

 

 

Cheers Freek

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