
Senior team beat SH Anzacs 2-1
In the morning, our U9’s had 2 good games of football. It was a joy watching our mini lions having fun. Therefore when I arrived in Waigaoqiao; there was only 10mn left to play in the 1st half vs. SH Anzacs team. What I saw was 2 teams not really bothering to play for the win & hardly creating any chances…
Our players were struggling with the slippery surface of the pitch as it rained the day before. It shown also that a couple of players still need to improve their technical skills.
The half time talk was not pleasant as we needed to change the mentality and attitude of the whole team in order get a positive result.
In the 2nd half, we did improve and started to play with more aggression. It lead to several corners and a couple of free kicks for us. We came close a few times but the SH Anzacs goalie was having a good day. Anzacs on the other hand were playing the same style throughout the whole match which were sending long range missiles by their sweeper into our box hoping our defenders would make a mistake. It did happen a few times but luckily we got away with it.
We got our reward for our hard work with 20 minutes to play when Cyril managed to slice thru the Anzac defense and assisted to Tomas who saw his effort roll in slow motion just over the line ! Cyril and Tomas decided to celebrate with a Tango as they thought the three points were in the bag.
Instead of controlling the match we lost our shape and organization and were nervous Anzac equalized with a header which surprised our defense.
We looked fitter at the end of the match and a good assist from Sami let Cyril this time and we got the lead back ! In the final minutes we almost got a heart attack when we saw that Francois our stand in goalie came out to the end of his box and it seemed from a distance he took the Anzac forward with him. The referee decide to give a penalty but after strong protest of Francois and super fair play from the Anzac forward who admitted Francois played the ball first the referee changed the decision No Penalty. In the end we got all three points.
[ SIFL ] Shanghai Lions FC 2-1 SH Anzacs
In the evening, we had a small group of players going out to say Farwell to George our youth player who will move to Melbourne to study. We are very pleased with the progress George have made in the years he played for the Lions. His commitment to the trainings and matches have been outstanding. We will surely miss George but on behalf of all Lions we wish him well in his next step in his life.
Cheers
Freek