Lions win Hebiguchi Cup !
Lions,
It was a beautiful day on Saturday ! Blue sky and 25 degrees perfect setting for our cup final against Reunited. Sometimes you can sense during the warming up how the team is motivated and this time all Lions were ready for it. We wanted to make up for a bad 30 minutes versus the Shooters. It was good that Lions Legend Jerome flew in from Bangkok to support us and Mus as well was back as supporter !
We took the initiative straight from the kick off and tested the Reunited defense a couple of time. Azzeddine almost nailed it when he sliced their defense open and Danni also came very close. In the end the Reunited had no other choice but to foul Azz to prevent him from scoring. The free kick was at a dangerous spot and the Reunited decided to cover the left side of the goal but he had no chance when Azz kicked the ball perfect in the right corner. The Lions didn’t stop here and within a few minutes a through ball from Azz put the soon the be father Mathieu alone for the keeper and he had no problem to score the 2-0 ! At half time there were praises for the Lions team work and display of football but also a warning that we still needed to play another 45 minutes. We knew we needed one more goal to be sure to win the Cup and tried hard to get it. Azz got a great chance but his lob over the keeper was saved. In the last 20 minutes Reunited pushed forward end the Lions got some tired legs but we had a great motivated bench to help out. Danni got the last chance of the match but also stranded at the goalie.
After the final whistle there was joy and happiness as nothing is better than winning a final ! We knew that we still need needed to stay focused to win the SIFL title and the SIFL Cup but nonetheless we did celebrate it until. First we had a great dinner outside at our sponsor “ Le Creperie” and after that the Lions disappeared in the night scene of Shanghai !
It was a great team performance and it showed that we are still hungry for titles !
Next up we will play the Dutch in the league on Saturday.
On Sunday we played an equal match against the Marlins for about 30 minutes but after that it was downhill for the Lions. The Marlins still fighting for the SPL title proved to be more hungry and clinical in front of the goal. Ethan who played his last game for the Lions had an outstanding game despite the goals conceded. One of his saves was dubbed by the Marlin manager as one of the best saves he had seen in Amateur football. Maybe it was part due to the hangover of the party night before or the fact that we are out of the race already but this was a game to forget. Let’s put out a better performance in our last two games of the season !
Let’s all come to the training to stay fit and focused for the last games !
Cheers Freek