Lions win on character in SPL !
Lions,
Due to the working Saturday there were no SIFL games this weekend but we took the chance to organize a game for the Lions Youth versus the Japanese school. The Japanese were playing their traditional counter attacking football. There were plenty of goals partly because the referee didn’t know about the offside rule. In the end a good practice game for both teams.
On Sunday the veterans saw their game against Scotland canceled by the Scotts this was the second time and not good for the moral. Luckily Super 48 saw their opponent also not turning up and we played a great friendly against them. The final score was 7-2 for the Lions and Jeff out of all people scored a hat-trick. A times the Lions Legends played good combination football and the game was a good preparation for the Master Cup on December 6th. This cup is organized by Super 48 and runs its second edition. The Lions aim is to get the Masters Double this season !
After the veteran game it was time for the SPL Lions to play Super 48 as well ! An emergency chat by Simon on Saturday asking players to be available to play saw a tsunami of “Not available” replies. I hope that this was an exceptional case and like to remind all the Lions that our strength has always been the willingness to help each other in case of need !
This time the help came from the Veterans Fred / Jeff / Freek / Dan, who already had a game in their legs and were asked to play another full game !
The strong wind was an important factor and we needed to score in the first half with the win in our backs. We came close a couple of times but the final finish was not there. Going into half time 0-0 we knew it would be hard with the strong wind against us. Super 48 is a much improved side and they kept bringing the balls into our box for us we could only sit deep and play on the counter. A smart move by Terao resulted in a hand ball in the box and the penalty was converted by Dave who kept his cool and shot the ball in the left top corner. After that Super 48 got a couple of free kicks and over 10 corners and one brilliant safe by Dan and 4 yellow cards for the Lions and finally the final whistle, 1-0 win ! This game was won pure on character and spirit !
We organize a friendly game on our training field this coming Wednesday against a Chinese team who likes to join the SPL and it will be good for us to get some match fitness after the long holiday break.
Cheers Freek