As I was watching champions league final on Saturday night I thought to myself I am not playing in this champions league… but I am the champion of a league! Wise words I feel to begin with.

I’ll start with a question. What do Barcelona (la liga) 2008, juventus (serie A) 2017, 2018, Man U (prem) 1999 and Celtic (the tin pot pub league) every year have in common??…. That’s right they were all treble winners! I’m sure coach Colin would say it’s too early to add raiders 2018 to that list so I won’t yet but what an incredible effort this year that with one more game to go we could find ourselves with 3 trophies filling up the cabinet! One more big push in the final game.

Onto the match for which I have been stitched up and asked to write the report.

Raiders went into the last game of the season having already been named champions. Everyone was there early eager to put on a performance and show everyone why we are champions of this league.
Raiders lined up with Mirko in goal. A back 3 of Scotty, Ollie (C) and Pete. In midfield we had Danny on the right. A central 3 of Mick, Toby and Nico playing his last game for the raiders. I played on the left with Hoggy and Wouter up top. On the bench we had Nayan, Clem, Luke, Danny and Arno.

As usual chu van anhs time keeping turned out to be as reliable as a Ben Thanh market Rolex so a 9pm kick off turned out to be more like 9:45.

Raiders started well but fell behind early to a quick counter attack. Clearly someone must have told them about hoggys drill in training on Wednesday. Hotshots went through and lifted it over Mirko. 1-0 to hotshots.

Raiders rallied though and were level quickly level. Hoggy had already been fouled in the box once and was fouled a second time. This time no hesitation from the ref. Penalty raiders. Hoggy ignored Thierry Henry’s stupid rule about not taking a pen if you have been fouled and passed the pen into the corner. 1-1 and raiders deservedly level.

After that raiders started to really dominate. Solid at the back and winning lots of loose balls in midfield. Toby, Mick and Nico winning plenty of tackles and using it well when they had it. Danny H was demoralizing the full back by beating him time and again so goal 2 was only a matter of time. Olly lifted a beautiful ball over the full back for Danny who not only amazingly kept it in but managed to dig out a great ball that took out the defenders and goalkeeper leaving hoggy a ludicrously easy task of tapping into an empty net. Hoggy somehow scuffed the ball into floor making it look like a difficult finish. Lucky for him maybe as it may have been his words being read instead of mine but like the actress said to the bishop “as long as it goes in, I don’t care”

Raiders continued to push as hard as Scotty Mcgayver during a pre game toilet trip but didn’t manage any further goals before the half. Half time 2-1 raiders.

After some encouragement at the break from coach and luckily no eating elephant analogies the raiders bounced back out for the second half ready to finish the job and crush hotshots chances of a second place finish. It didn’t take long for a third goal. Good work from Clem, a replacement for Wouter, and Hoggy led to a scramble in the hotshots area. The hotshots defender deciding he would rather take the own goal rather than let Hoggy have the golden boot award. 3-1 raiders and seeming comfortable.

With the 3 points looking assured raiders had a 10 min spell to forget. Firstly a cheap free kick given away on the edge of the box. A hotshot clipped it over the wall and into the top corner. Nothing Mirko could do to be fair. 2-3

A minute later there was danger inside the raiders box again. Pete ‘the ice man’ ( so called for his uncontrollable love of crystal meth and not for his cool persona on the pitch) shadowed the ball out. The ball clearly went over the line for a goal kick but neither the lino nor ref saw it (surprising at chu vanh anh!!) and raiders went to sleep defensively, in particular yours truly. A couple of ricochets and it fell for an easy tap in. 3-3 and raiders looking a bit shell shocked.

It didn’t get any better from there. Another quick counter from hotshots. Through the defence and their striker poked past Mirko as he came out. 4-3 to hot shots and raiders had gone from 3-1 up and cruising to 4-3 down in a matter of minutes.

Most teams would have crumbled at this stage but not this raiders team! The last 10 mins was an onslaught on the hotshots goal which was deservedly rewarded with Clem breaking past the defense and driving low past the gk. 4-4
Raiders haven’t been behind too many times this season but each time it has happened we have responded like champions.

All in all a good performance but for 10 mins in the second half where we switched off and got caught out. Safe to say we will need to concentrate fully against fighting cocks to bring home our 3rd trophy of the season.

Congratulations to Toby who had a great game in midfield. Tenacious in the tackle and used the ball really well. Well deserved MOTM.

A few noticeable mentions from the game.

Danny Vo survived at least 5 mins on a field without trying to snap someone’s leg.

Hoggy narrowly avoiding ANOTHER yellow for foil and abusive language.

Ollie shockingly avoiding turkey again despite warming up in his snug joggers in 35 degree heat.

Luke McDonnell modeling potentially the flashiest boots ever seen in the SIFL league. Good job it was an evening game otherwise those around him might have been more distracted by those pale green beauties!!!

And Niko Greeve managing to watch an entire raiders game without enticing the hotshots supporters!

A massive congratulations to Clem for adding the golden boot to our celebrations. Coming up with big goals at big moments this season! To me, the battle between hoggy and Clem summed up the team spirit in the team this year. Even with hoggy chasing down the golden boot he was still trying to play Clem in during the last 10 mins. Great teamwork and easy to see why we have deserved the league this year when you have everyone in the team pulling together! Class Hoggy.
Both Hoggy and Clem averaging over a goal a game speaks for itself!

Finally au revoir to Nico who leaves Vietnam to go back to France. You will be really missed Nico. A class act on and off the field! A title is not a bad way to leave us!

Next week we will compete for the SIFL cup to try and complete an amazing treble. Let’s leave everything out on that field one last time and make it a season to remember. COME ON WAIDDDERRRSSS!!!