1, 2, 3 Raiders! And so the Saigon Raiders Christmas game began.

The first 15 minutes both the red and white team seemed pretty evenly matched, but that would soon turn out to be irrelevant.
In the 16th minute Hoggy escaped from the back of the defense with quick pace to eventually finish the ball cross ways into the bottom corner.
Red team tanked confidence by the goal and started taking more initiative. In the 24th minute goalkeeper Arjen thought he was playing with the Juniors as he caught a throw in from Aron by his hands (one of the few balls he would catch this match). The free kick that followed was a strategic one on the edge of the box. Fernando got served by a low ball towards the edge of the box where he immediately took a shot with his left foot, the shot got parried by the goalie of the white time, however the ball slipped away from his hands up to which Kim anticipated fastest of all; Red team 2, White team 0.

Four minutes later Red struck again, ‘on-fire’ Hoggy got a well-played assist from Pat which he finished in cold blood. It seemed White team was done within half an hour of football. White team tried to push back, while playing around the box of Red team a foul was committed on Clemens. From approximately 25 meter Clemens took a direct freekick which bounced out of the goal via the woodwork, however Bart was sharp and took the rebound with a header. White got back in the game, the score remained 3-1 up till the half time whistle.

Five minutes into the second half it was Clemens who decreased the margin to one, it seemed that the speech of White team coach Colin woke the players up and were ready to fight for a draw or even a victory.
That turned out to be a dream only as Red team wasn’t about to give in, with an assist of Jordi Nam it was Hoggy who signed up for his hattrick. The level of football decreased after that, White team seemed to have lost faith and so Red team took advantage of it. Eventually Man of the Match Fernando made his first goal by receiving an assist from Mike. Only 2 minutes later Kim seemed anxious for making a couple of additional goals which he did in the 24th minute, again it was Mike who gave the through ball. The score seemed impossible for the white team by now, Red team 6 vs. White team 2. Rick however wasn’t going to lay down his guns. Within 2 minutes Clemens and Rick made some flawless combinations which resulted in two assists for Clemens and two goals for Rick.

As the end of the game was closing in White started playing with an all or nothing tactic which had devastating consequences. Fernando took a shot out of the box that curled into the top corner of the goal. In the 29th minute Nico couldn’t stand his goal drought anymore so he pushed out a sprint on the left flank, Aron was in the chase but couldn’t stop him, White team’s goalie arrived too late and so Nico curled the ball around the goalie into the far right corner.
The final blow was given by Fionn who nutmegged the goalie and then finished off in style. Final score; Red team 9 – White team 4.

Regards,

Arjen