Match Review: Singapore Vikings FC vs TGA Rangers FC

• DF Lasse Lund
• DF Peter Boe
• MD Thomas Domino Andersen
• -- Lars Oestergaard
• -- Alexander Broun
• -- Thomas Sorensen
• -- Jesper Meincke Nielsen
• -- Thomas Elbo Andersen
• -- Simon Uldbjerg
• -- Andreas Hoffmann
• -- Brian Chang Won Plaenoe

• -- Christian Laurenborg
• -- Karl Martin Nygaard
• -- Michael Jorgensen

Power Rangers beats the Vikings

Saturday afternoon game at Turf City against the Rangers. Vikings starts the game in a 4-4-2 with the focus on a compact midfield, playing simple and putting in all our energy from the beginning. Lars Ø kindly offered to take on the goalie position and gets off to a good start. For the first 15 minutes the game is bouncing back and forth with Vikings getting a few decent chances for Jesper and Tommie. The following 15 mins Rangers take charge of the game and through a series of collective and personal errors the Vikings team is suddenly down 0-3. First 1-0 as the Rangers striker gets a through-ball and neatly passes the ball under Lars Ø from a free position around the penalty spot. 2-0 on a header following a corner kick. 3-0 on a penalty where Brian makes us all aware how important it is to have good shin pads :) The Vikings team is struggling to get back into the game and Rangers continue to put pressure on the Vikings defense with two energetic strikers. A bunch of disappointed Vikings go to the water break and get a chance to adjust a few tactical aspects before returning to the game with renewed energy. After 35 minutes the Vikings team get a free-kick in the left side. Domino spots Tommie on the box and takes a quick free kick with the Rangers defense still trying to get into position. Tommie manages to head the ball before the defender and keeper. 3-1 for Rangers. Vikings starts building up the pressure to get another goal before half-time. First a big chance with Simon with a header. Next a goal from disallowed for offsite. A few minutes before the half-time Vikings get a free-kick around 10 meters outside the Rangers box. Domino kicks a hard, flat ball which the keeper only just manages to block. Jesper reads the situation quickly and scores to 3-2. Great spirit by the Vikings to come back from 3-0 and the game is open again. The half-time break provides another good opportunity to re-energize the team for the second half. For the first 15 minutes of the second half the Vikings team has the upper hand. Good pressure across the whole pitch and a few good chances for Tommie. Lars Ø makes a couple of good saves. After 60 minutes Lasse gets swapped for Karl Martin. The Rangers keeper gets injured and Rangers have to put one of their midfielders in the goal. The game continues to be open and both teams are fighting hard to get the next goal. The sun is coming out and the heat is on. Laurenborg comes on for Bodie. 75 minutes played and the Rangers striker makes some good moves to get passed Elbo and Brian. Brian gets too close to the strikers and Rangers get another penalty. 4-2 for Rangers and the Vikings team is struggling to bounce back. Rangers get another few chances and after 8 minutes the striker gets through to a free position in the penalty box, 5-2. With a few minutes left the Rangers striker is again in a free position in the penalty box. Lars Ø tries to get the ball put ends of making a penalty. After a bit of discussion with the ref on whether he can stand behind the goal-line Lars managed to save the penalty and gets a loud cheer from the great Vikings supporters. No more energy from both teams and the referees blows the final whistle. Thanks to the referees, supporters and Rangers for a fair game.

• Bernd Schiele GK
• Hiromitsu Nakaue DF
• Elliot Jackson MD
• Nathan Bryer MD
• Stephen McLaughlin MD
• Mike Sharples ST
• Salvatore Adaldo ST
• Jared Callaghan --
• Nick Lenicheck --
• Oliver Wright --
• Joakim Jensen --

• Pierre Emmanuel Brard --
• Esad Sejdic --
• Ruben Da Silva --
• Hayden James Ng --

Vikings Pay the Penalty

The long weekend brings its challenges with people away and with a couple of last minute drops, things were looking a bit thin. But a few last minute callups and we were able to name another strong 15 man squad. However with 3 minutes before kickoff there was still no sign of "star players" Nathan and Sharples. Apparently the hairdresser took too long to cut sharples hair, so the tardy barber was told to stop midway thru his masterpiece. As a consequence Sharples rocked up at kick off with the rudest haircut you've ever seen. Naught on the sides, party on top. Like some sort of inverse mullet. Truly dreadful. Anyway, the game started at a very competitive pace, with vikings more than matching Rangers. However it was Rangers who took the lead with a fine goal as Nick slid the ball thru to an onrushing Nathan who finished smartly. Nathan soon doubled the score with a header at the back stick from an Elliot corner. The third was from a sharples penalty after Salvo was clobbered in the area. 3-0 after 20 mins and the Ranger's boys were a little bit surprised at the water break as it had been a very competitive affair but we were clinical when our opportunities came. However, we completely stopped playing after the break and let a resurgent Viking side deservedly back in the contest. The first was a smart bit of play from Domino as he clipped a quickly taken free kick into the area for Tommy to power a header into the corner. The second was from another Domino free kick that was parried to the feet of a midfielder who finished well. The second half started much in the same vein with Vikings putting lots of pressure on, especially when it became obvious that our stand-in keeper Joakim was injured and Elliot donned the gloves. At this point Vikings came close to equalising with Tommy hitting the post from an impossible angle and Joakim saving with his legs again from Tommy. However, despite their pressure, Vikings were always susceptible to conceding on the break the pace we had up top finally told with Sharples floored for our 2nd penalty and well needed 2 goal cushion. A fifth goal soon arrived as Sharples beat a couple of men and found the bottom corner. At 5-2 the score was perhaps a bit flattering but it could have got worse for vikings when they conceded their 3rd penalty of the day but this time the keeper saved. All in all a great game that was a lot closer than the score suggested. Vikings, on this display, will be right up there at the end of the season. MoM to Tommy who was a constant threat. MoM to Rangers to Nath, who was everywhere and scored 2 very important goals. The fixture list continues to throw very difficult games our way with Latini up next