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YC&AC, Sunday 21st February.
On a beautiful Sunday morning, a weak Lions squad were defiant not to be defeated again by the YC&AC after a very entertaining game at the start of the season.
With a make shift central defensive combination of Hussein and Sima, the Lions had to play smart tactically lining up with a 4-5-1 formation.
At the heart of the midfield was Aziz who played with energy that had to have been fuelled by a couple of red bulls before the game, and his job was to protect the back four.
Keishi and Yukii teamed up well on the right hand side completely isolating the storming runs by the YCAC down the flanks, with Keishi winning the Matsuda brothers duel hands down, and Satoshi having to switch sides to the right hand side of their striking force hoping to avoid Keishi and have better luck.
The game started with YCAC attacking strongly, with excellent flowing football, only to have it time and time again foiled by the lions players all playing out of their skin, in particular Hussein in the centre of defence with some acrobatic overhead clearances as well.
The frustration with how the Lions were foiling the attacks from YCAC was obvious, and with Ahmed Z. showing his pace up front on the counter, the game was shaping up to be a cracker.
YCAC put a bit more pressure with some good shots on target only for Orlando (spiderman returns) to hold on to the shots, some of which were heading to the top corner.
It looked like it was heading to a stalemate at half time when a long ball was mis-judged by Sima and he headed it upwards rather than away, with Satoshi pouncing on the falling ball, only for Keishi to put in a toe and move it away from Satoshi but unfortunately into the path of Mike who had an empty net to place his shot from just inside the 18 yard box (Orlando started coming for the ball with Satoshi).
Straight from the kick-off Lions went on the attack with Abu combining well with Ahmed Z. who released Omar breaking through from the midfield storming into the box for a one on one with the keeper until he was clipped from behind by the YCAC defender. Naively and admirably both at the same time he tried to stay on his feet (he was slowed down) and another defender made a last ditch tackle putting the ball out for a corner kick. Should he have gone down is the question as it would have been a penalty and probably a sending off for the last man for a tackle from behind?
Half time 1-0 YCAC with Lions feeling that they are playing well and can easily get back into the game keeping up the fighting spirit and hitting YCAC on the counter.
Second half started as how the first half did with Lions coming close a couple of times from set pieces, with Ahmed Z. hitting the post with a header from an excellently delivered free-kick from Sima.
Hide was unusually quiet for YCAC and that was mainly due to the excellent tracking back by the midfielders and the steel of Aziz in front of the back four.
YCAC broke through a couple of times only for Notte and Keishi on separate occasions to make some goal line interceptions denying Satoshi on both occasions.
Satoshi was one on one with Orlando as well, with Orlando quick off his line to gather the ball, at the expense of a slightly dislocated finger and, well let’s just say he is glad he has already had the opportunity to conceive!
True end to end stuff throughout the game with neither side really having many clear cut chances, but some excellent football to watch. Well done all involved from both sides, it was what I think the TML should be all about FOOTBALL, good FOOTBALL!
Lions Man of The Match
Difficult to pick between Keishi, Hussein and Yukii all taking bullets for the president, but may have to give it to the bro (despite not wanting to), but he is the only one playing out of position and still had an excellent game
Report by Mo Shehata
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