Match Review: Aioli Monkeys FC vs Gaelic Lions FC

• GK Daniele Pacella
• DF Anthony Tongson
• DF Sebastien Grand
• MD Harry Shaw
• MD Attilio Ferrari
• MD Juan Jose Velaz Sanchez
• ST Mark Addy
• ST Javier Torrano
• ST Joe Wright
• ST Peter Besselink
• -- Matthieu Ginestet

• DF Philip Scharff
• MD Thomas Vacher
• MD Giacomo Iafrate
• MD Ivan Avramovic

Back to Basics

After a disappointing cup defeat last week, the Monkeys went back to basics against Gaelic Lions and came away with a well deserved 3-0 victory. Hard work and discipline were the key messages, and objective number 1 was achieved when we managed to avoid conceding before the first water break. High fives all round for the defence and keeper. We played a bit more expansively after that and created a few openings, most notably Joe hitting a post when through one-on-one with the keeper. The deadlock was broken when Seb’s floating corner (which almost defied science by hanging in the air for so long) was met by the head of Anton for 1-0, making Anton our joint top scorer with 2 goals. The Lions looked a threat through the darting runs of their young striker but we went in at HT 1-0 up. The Lions almost equalised at the start of the second half from a corner but Daniele made sure we stayed ahead with a superb full-length diving save. That sparked us into life and after brilliant work from Joe down the right rolling his defender, he laid it on a plate for JJ who made no mistake for 2-0. JJ joining our joint top-scorers list with his second of the season. The rest of the game was about preserving our clean sheet and not doing anything silly. The Lions started to increase the tempo and had a good spell towards the end but we managed to keep their chances to a minimum. The Monkeys had to wait until right at the end to put the game to bed, with Addy abandoning his defensive duties, charging into the opposition’s box and finishing a nice move between Matty and Joe down the left to make that 5 players now tied on 2 goals. Good win overall. Thanks to the Lions for the game and Brad in the middle.

• Derek Cahill GK
• Will Sexton DF
• Iskandar Björn Radewaldt MD
• Kazuki Sato-Brennan ST
• Alistair Hoskinson ST
• Mike Brown --
• James Devane --
• Rob Church --
• Tadhg Lowe --
• Matt Heslop --
• Allan O'Donahue --

• Wilfried Lapierre DF
• Markus Chua --
• Neil Corrigan --
• Shane Buttimer --

Ah Jaysus, me nerves......

A rain-sodden Turf City was the venue for Sat's game and once again a rather depleted Lions rocked up expecting a tough match and that is exactly what we got against our old pals the Monkeys.  Fine margins was the order of the day as always, not taking chances ourselves and conceding sloppy goals, the first of which was a free header from a corner and the second a complete free hit when the right winger waltzed in to the box and laid it on a plate for MOM Juan.  The Lions did have decent passages of play and controlled a lot of the game, got stretched in the end and conceded a third when we were pushing on to leave us with a solitary point from the first five games hah hah!! #class #classic The day culminated in Lions MOM Tadgh getting his wallet and phone nicked from his bag on the touchline and proceeded to get $9k stolen from his account. Lesson to be learned for all teams folks.  Nippon next week - gulp.