Big game for us against the 2nd of the league which we seems to always perform against in the recent years. However with Vikings hope to race for the title we knew things will be a challenge, but that was before the red card which clearly un balanced the game. OG managed to take advantage of the situation in first half with a 2 goal lead before shaking for a few minute after Vikings goal and killing the game with a 3rd and a fourth. Game clearly started evenly with as usual 2 teams try to keep the ball and possession. Not many things happened before we reach the fatal 10min mark: A ball through, Max G should to should with Vikings defender who tackle the ball back to the keeper, Max G fell over in the move as Viking's player touched his feet after clearing the ball. Ref blew the whistle and gave a straight red card as Thomas was the last defender. A very harsh decision. Slowly with 1 man up OG started to take over the control of the game with Antoine and Philipe doing a great work in midfield. 10min later a ball through in our defense, Bastos cut the trajectory and clears it out before a Viking ran into him and fell over. Ref blew the whistle again, as all except a fault for us, ref point his finger into the other direction and everyone was expecting the compensation, which ended up with Lionel just receiving a Yellow. As we setup the wall, and their striker is about to take the shoot, ref then decided it was a penalty and whistled again to point to the penalty spot before the lines man cleared the situation. After those 10min of craziness football took over and we soon took the lead with a good work in the center. We manage to find Max up front which from a smart deflection released Hugo for a 1vs1 agains the keeper. He made no mistake to convert it. 5min later we scored a 2nd from a long corner. 2-0 HT. Second half started with Viking pressuring us hire with the nothing to lose kind spirit. We settled at the back waiting for them while trying to get the killer 3rd one. However it s Viking who scored from a long free kick that end up on the poor bastos who could only send it into the back of his own net. We had a shaking 5min when Viking was cleary using the momentum to equalize. But soon enough Remi score a 3rd one from another good move that started on the right to finish on the left. After that Viking was no real threat and we scored a fourth one on the final whistle. It seems to be a fair result based on the game but we have to admit that with 11 man it would have been another story. Viking looked sharp and fit but fate was against them tonite. A good victory from OG against the second after 2 disappointing draw vs Rangers and Latini. We now have to capitalize next week end against the Swiss MOM Gaulois went again for Philipe who seems to be unstoppable in the last few game. High work rate coupled with skills and vision. Could MOM Viking, I think it was christian with the num 23 in midfield.
In despite of missing 4 central defenders the Vikings manager were contend with the 15 man squad, in which Vikings had included Rick Aarnoudse who under difficult circumstances did well in his debut for the Vikings. Kick off and Vikings creating half an opportunity in the 2nd minute, after which O.Gaulois tried to hit us on the counter attack, a superb back pass to the keeper by stand in centreback Tommie nudging ahead of the striker - and no danger......unfortunately not all saw it like that - red card and Vikings to play 88 minutes one man down. To be fair and we really wish to give the French players credit for this, they made an effort to get the man in the middle to reverse the red card (great sportsmanship and really appreciated). However neither linesmen or opponents could do anything to help the Vikings. The remaining Vikings did put out a good battle and we were in the game for a good 65 minutes with especially Domino working well in the mdidle and Laurenborg fighting well a 7th choice centreback. Gaolois took the a 2-0 lead from two half chances and were creating more, while in the other end Viking did look dangerous on the coutner attack with our quick wingers and on set plays and the OG keeper pulled out a few good saves, while their number 6 did well to dominate on central midfield. At 1-2 Viking gave it a bit of a gamble and changed to a classic 3-4-2 - but when OG got the 3-1 goal superbly taken by Remi it was game over. Credit to the lads for fighting hard and credit to the french for a generally fair played game. Title hopes are slowly fading for the Vikings with SCC showing strong form down at dempsey. We havent given up yet though and we are looking forward to playing GAS this coming weekend. MJ