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Misato, Sunday 5th October
Lions first Division 1 match at last kicks off, and with a crucial society event, Lions were missing a handful of key players, including the reliable left back Mo Birkia, his dribbling maestro of a brother - Abu, the talented tall striker Zuhair, the Captain Gaafar Somi, and the super keeper - Orlando (and more!)....
This was an opportunity to hand a couple of new potential players their chance to shine.
Nevertheless, Lions were just 12 on the day, with the only striker available, Ahmed Gaafar, suffering a slight groin strain during the warm up. Ahmed was thrown in, and although he performed well, his blistering pace was restrained with the niggling injury.
Lions reverted to a back 3, and a compact 6 midfielders due to the availability of players.
The game started well, and within 10 minutes, Ken Hersche almost put Lions ahead, but a brave save from France's keeper Taylor, denied the Lion's ace. Another chance was fashioned on the right, and as a drilled cross found its way through, an over-stretched Ken, could not capitalise on the chance, with Ahmed slotting wide.
The impressive Hideki place a beauty of a through pass to Ahmed, who found himself one-on-one with Taylor, but credit to the keeper, he made a great save, with the ball falling to Hideki, who then re-played the ball back to Ahmed, who this time made sure Lions go 1-0 up, deservedly.
The 2 new centre-backs, Sho, and Tatsu, were very impressive, where every ball played in the box, were headed out superbly by the high flying defenders.
A moment of hesitation, saw a France player break the offside trap, credit to the Lions' linesman, who after flagging a player offside, saw the onside players' run and put his flag down, to allow France to round the standin keeper Taiki and level the game at 1-1.
The second half saw the only Lions change with Ahmed coming off, and Ken thrown upfront in the lone striker position.
France almost scored from a 40-yarder aimed to catching Taiki off-gaurd, but luckily the back paddling Taiki saw the ball sit on the top of the net.
Jorge Kuriyama had a magnificent 25 yard free-kick dipping into the bottom left corner, but Taiki pulled the save of the match, turning it safely into a corner.
Lions then played a through pass, with Hideki breaking the offside trap, and crossing for Ken who powered his header past a helpless Taylor. The goal however was ruled offside by the France linesman, who insisted that he was unaware of the 'non-interfering offiside rule', despite 30 minutes earlier, the Lions' linesman allowed France to score exactly the same goal!
Lions players and coaches were furious, but the referee still dismissed the goal.
With Tatsuya playing for the first time in the 'Makalele' position, protecting the back 3 along with Fahad, he was gold for Lions, till a slight injury forced him out. Lions then became under pressure, with Tatsuya's absence affecting the game.
With Ahmed forced back into the game for the injured Tatsuya, a counter attack with clever side switching saw Omar lay the ball across the 'D', only for the struggling Ahmed to drill home a low shot past Taylor, to make it 2-1 to Lions with 5 minutes to go.
Ahmed feeling the effect of his scorcher, was replaced for the second time by Tatsuya, who soldiered on for the remaining few minutes.
With a few new players, Lions played a very attractive fast game, with France defenders having to continously break the through runs, with Lions fashioning an attack almost every minute!
A fast-paced, 'Arsenal-like' game with very athletic new players, earned Lions a perfect start, and with new players impressing, and with returning players, surely Lions' season can only get better.
Man of the Match: Tatsuya Ando in the new position (discovered by Mo in 7s)
Match report by Lions
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