Match Review: Hollandse FC vs Singapore Vikings FC

Hollandse FC had the Vikings with their backs against the ropes after having displayed a brilliant first half of football, with shot after shot being fired on (their own) goalkeeper Bart de Visser, who curiously enough chose to play for the Vikings over the Hollandse FC side. After having conceded an early goal from a corner, the Hollandse FC straightened their backs and decided to pressurize the Vikings’ back four as they looked uncertain at times and clearly struggled with the attacking play and excellent movement between the lines by Jules Busser and Marko Popovic. With stunning goals from Jules, Jaap van Olst and Mick van Amelsvoort, the Hollandse FC were leading comfortably (3-1) with 30 minutes remaining on the clock. Until then, the three points did not look in jeopardy at all as central defenders Jurry van Rooijen and Gerrit Stoelinga organized the Hollandse FC defense superbly, preventing the Vikings from becoming too dangerous. On top of that, the Vikings’ midfield was struggling with the aggressiveness of the Hollandse FC’s midfield. Roy van der Windt, Michiel Beks, Erik de Witte and Jaap were on top of their opponents, shifting easily from left to right, and picking up full backs where and when needed. The Vikings were however aided by an unfortunate deflection/ own goal by Jaap which helped them back into the game. The equally unfortunate equalizer followed shortly thereafter when the excellently playing Jorn van der Bruggen was unable to clear the weak effort from a corner kick at the back post, resulting in a 3-3 score after 90 minutes. Hollandse FC had depleted their energy levels, and the Vikings became stronger and stronger in the 20 minutes of extra time. However, one chance after the other was missed, and the Hollandse FC were still alive when the referee blew his whistle for the end of the match. Unfortunately enough, a penalty kick missed by Gerrit meant the loss of a well-played match by the Hollandse FC side as well as progression to the Cosmo plate tournament. Bart will probably keep rubbing that in for the next few months or so. Thanks for an awesome match and good luck in your future endeavors Vikings! MOM - Mick van Amelsvoort with 1 goal and 2 assists.

• Henrik Synnes DF
• Casper Toennesen MD
• Andreas Thoft --
• Hotan Mathews --
• Tjalfe Paulsen --
• Thomas Elbo Andersen --
• Peter Boe --
• Alexander Broun --
• Rune Tornsberg --
• Bart de Visser --
• Magnus Mernild --

• Thomas Domino Andersen MD
• Mark James Raven --
• Mark Crouch --
• Mark Van Dalen --
• Marck Madsen --
• Michael Jorgensen --

The Domino Effect

The Domino Effect: a cumulative effect produced when one event initiates a succession of similar events Vikings welcomed Hollandse to Turf City on another steamy day. Previous weeks results have not gone our way and this match had all the makings for a classic cup upset. With our captain and two top scorers all missing from the line-up we certainly lacked any recognised striker amongst the chosen starting eleven. Our plan was to start at a good tempo and take the game to the Dutch early on, this is what happened and we found ourselves a goal to the good within the first 15 min when Henrik got something on a cross from the right and it bobbled into the bottom corner. Although this was just what we needed to settle us down, quite the opposite occurred as the team in orange showed us that they were up for the fight and cultured a number of good chances. It came as no surprise when they drew level after good work by their talented young striker resulted in a chance being easily converted. Worse was to come moments later when Hollandse took the lead just before half time, their tails were up and we looked a little lacklustre. There was no need for us to panic and at the break we discussed continuing to play the ball around and working the ball wide whenever we could. Henrik reverted to his role at the back and the veteran Madsen came on up top to try and get us playing more football. The game was pretty much an even affair but it felt like we had enough to get ourselves back in the game and to go on and win it. It didn’t feel that there was too much of a threat but miscommunication at the back saw us give away a cheap corner......fast forward a few seconds and we had conceded again, things were not looking good as we trudged off for the second water break. There was now the need to for us to stop thinking about playing pretty football and to dig deep and show heart and determination to rescue the tie. After over a year out Domino was being readied for the final battle, he entered the game and immediately took over as the general of the troops. The tiring Dutch were no match for him and his simple and effective play meant that we started to completely control the centre ground. A half chance on the left was fired in on goal and a wicked deflection saw the ball end up beating the keeper. Our spirit and effort was epitomised by Crouch who chased manically down the line to get us corner out of nothing, a good header from the cross saw us level with minutes remaining. Still we pressed forward with Domino pulling the strings and Casper, Rune and Andreas working their backsides off. With the final move of the game a sweeping ball found the head of Madsen but his effort went the wrong side of the post. Extra time came and went and after nearly two hours of competitive football the game was to be decided by a penalty shoot-out. The first penalty was taken by the Dutch and was the only one of the ten to be missed; our winning kick came from our inspiration and man of the match Domino. Thank you to Hollandse for a great game, the young gun 25 was great to watch, and to the officials who managed the game well. On a final note it was great to see a fighting spirit amongst the Vikings and was also great to see so many club members supporting the team.