Away game… this time the Saigon Raiders actually had to leave their safe haven “D2” to play somewhere where they have never seen a foreigner before, a place where the dogs are on the BBQ and where they smoke Craven instead of Marlboro Light.

The Vikings drew their game so it was time for the Raiders to show them how it’s done. The game started as discussed in the pre-talk with full-on pressure from the Raiders.  The first 4 to 5 minutes were in favour of the Raiders since the Vietnamese side didn’t expect this much pressure. However, they adjusted soon enough and were actually able with a lot of “Heeeejaaa” & “Oeeeeehh” & “Trọng tài” and 1000000 free kicks to get control of the game and play out of the pressure.

The Vietnamese side started to play the ball around in their own half. Playing the ball from defender to defender and back again. As soon as one of us came close to taking the ball from them, they would scream “heeejaaa”  and they could take another free-kick.

To be fair the first 20 to 25 minutes the raiders could not pass the ball to each other more than 3 times. They lost the ball easily and the Vietnamese side started playing the ball around again. They did this only on their own half though and without ever coming near the Raiders goal. After not touching the ball for more than 5 minutes some of the players got frustrated resulting in more reckless pressure and a few yellow cards for the Raiders.

But then the gods were with us and it started pouring down, which was actually in favour of us. The Vietnamese side couldn’t play their passing game because the pitch slowly transformed into a swimming pool and they started losing the ball more often. It was around the 30th minute when Chris crossed the ball in for Clem to head in, which he did, 1-0.

From that moment, The Raiders were in full control of the game. It was around the 40th minute when Clem (accidentally) crossed the ball into the far corner of the goal directly from a corner kick. 2-0

Half time.

After half time it was basically a played game, the Vietnamese started to attack with 7 men without even creating a single change and we could easily counterattack. Resulting in the 3-0 from Jon and the 4-0 from UNIT Ben.

We created so many chances that everyone wanted to get their name on the scoreboard, which meant some of the players missed chances that were impossible to miss. Especially Chris, who missed three 1 on 1 chances in a row against the tiniest goalie ever seen. Making him the Turkey of the game. 

The football rule is, If you can’t finish the changes yourself it will go in on the other side and that’s exactly what happened.. one of the Vietnamese lads tried his luck and beautifully put the ball in the right top corner, leaving Jonas no chance! Some even say Jonas fined this guy for shooting the ball over the speed limit…. (It’s all in the rules guys!!)

After that, Clemens scored his 3rd goal to make it 5-1, a hattrick, and an assist for our number 99 made him the well-deserved man of the match.

End score 5-1.