Finally, the time has come for another friendly as preparation for the next Raiders season. Raiders finished second last season and of course as second, being the first loser, preparations for next season are well underway to make the next season a better one.

Everything was set for a beautiful Saturday afternoon match. Rain has driven the temperatures down and even stopped for kick-off. If only the Raider players from D2 had arrived on time (1 hour taxi drive; “Are we still in HCMC?”), the match could have started at 4pm. Anyway, in the end precisely navigated with a lot of efforts by Craig´s girlfriend, the D2 players found the right pitch and the match could start right on time.

Several new players, including the author of this report, appeared in the starting 11 of the match and could collect experience in the Raider´s jersey. All the way from Amsterdam, a new player called Guido (simply refer to him as „G“) played on the right wing and could show some nice runs down to the base line. The Raiders started with a 4-2- 3-1 with Edwin and Craig as double six and Hoggy in the front.

As expected, Nam An (average height of 1,65 m) was trying to take advantage out of their tiki taka aka. Vietnamese-Can-Do-Pep-As-Well style with many short passes and high possession. The Raiders were impressed by the self-confidence that Nam An started with. Therefore, Nam An has been able to score the first goal using a moment of carelessness in the Raiders´ defence. As the Raiders tried to manage to adapt to the way Nam An played (beautifully underlined by Craig´s aggressive tackles in the midfield), nice attacks towards the Nam An goalkeeper could have been created.

After a beautiful corner, Hoggy marked the first goal for the Raiders with a header that Shkodran Mustafi couldn´t have done better for Germany in the Euro 2016. After that, the Raiders gained more and more control over the match as Nam An might have been impressed by the aggressive, but yet fair style of Raiders’ attacking. As thunderstorms marked their way back to the pitch and heavy rain was approaching with it, the Raiders kept playing their way, unimpressed by the weather conditions. Goal number two and three followed, again scored by Hoggy and Nam An seemed to be already beaten.

However, never assume a team with 11 determined Vietnamese players to be beaten. As thunderstorms came closer to the pitch, some Raiders decided to be substituted, because they expected to be hit by the lightnings, being the highest points on the pitch. The substitutes then first had to adapt to the weather circumstances, which gave Nam An the chance to score the 2:3.

Unimpressed by that, the Raiders simply scored the 4:2 in the next attack giving them back the comfortable two goal lead. Especially this fourth goal was beautifully scored by Hoggy (once more by the Raiders´ engine in the attack), who could use a weakness of the goalkeeper standing a bit too far from his own goal. Hoggy used that opportunity and scored from a distance of 25 m, letting the Nam An goalkeeper look fairly surprised.

Our aggressive style continued, even though Raiders’ Dutch player Wouter tried too hard and almost hit a Nam An player in full pace with a rather flying tackle towards the Vietnamese. This should have been reason enough for the Turkey of the Match award, rather than a minor failed ball reception. Anyway, this was the final result and a 4:2 win over Nam An could be taken home. Congrats to Hoggy for scoring four goals, but also to our goalkeeper who was one of the main reasons for our stable defence. Great team performance and decent foundation to build on in the future.