The Sunday night thriller in Tran Thai…

Well hydrated from beer wine and wild turkey the raiders made the trek to D7 for our Sunday night game against Gemadept. Still playing in the away real madridesque white on white kit, we started the game with a lot of positivity, no doubt brought on by some seriously intoxicated bonding on Friday evening.

Pressing Gemadept high in their lines and forcing them to play the long ball out of defense seemed to reap rewards early on when the Raiders were awarded a correct penalty early on in the first half. Having been fouled and made captain, Nico grabbed the ball with a conviction that no one questioned. Aiming bottom left, according to himself in the post-match Q&A session, he sent his very powerful shot skyward without troubling the keeper, clearing everything, including the bar. A video of the shot can be seen here.

After this it must be said the Raiders kept their heads held high, motivating each other and we continued to play our game, which resulted in a clear goal when the goalkeeper misjudged his momentum, carried the ball a clear 40cm over the line. Protests all around, bewildered looks from the linesman who found uniform and flag resting on a motorbike minutes earlier and had no clue what his job was. Arms swung and words in many different languages too harsh to type said, the whistle stayed cold and play continued.

A quickly taken indirect free kick goal was then called back as the whistle hadn’t been blown yet, something the ref neglected to do for any other free kick during the game and then continued to neglect to do after that free kick. The one actually taken was excellently passed straight to a Gemadept defender about 5 meters from where the kick was taken. An honorable mention to Bao who managed a trademark clearance over the fence to lose the last of our good balls.The first half trickled to and end and over iced tea from a bucket, Coach Angelo motivated us to keep our heads held high and that we could indeed win this game.

The second half started much of the same as the first half, Bao lapped mike so send a cross turned shot, turned cross into the “box” which ended up being a shot on target. In the confusion the goalie decided to roll the ball straight to Mike who slotted the ball into the net to make it 1-0 for the raiders. Apart from training penalties we might also want to learn some sweet moves on how to celebrate our goals. As the celebration the team went with yesterday could also double as a funeral march.

Kung- Fu kicks ensued as Gemadept got a little more frustrated and the ref send shockwaves through tran thai when he produced a straight red for his countryman. Being a goal up and having a man advantage? Things were starting to look really rosy for the old turkey. This feeling was to grow when the raiders were awarded another penalty, again correctly. Once again the fouled player stepped up, Rich sensing he could add to his tally. If you saw Mike’s penalty a few weeks back, nothing more needs to be said as it seemed a carbon copy and left little doubt on why England seems to have a difficult time in knockout stages of the world cup.

A few minutes later after some tussling, Nico got kicked while on the ground, which came very close to producing our first fight of the season. It resulted in Nico seeing his second yellow of the match and thus being sent off as well as the Vietnamese culprit seeing another straight red, making it 10 vs 9.

Other notable chances included a flying header from Rich, inches away from the goal. A Ronaldo finish into the top corner of the net, also by Rich, which was called offside mere seconds before, to quote the great man himself, it was “disgraceful”. Lastly an inch perfect cross from Pat, to Lars, who alone in front of the goal, ran past the ball, tried to connect with the outside of one of his two left feet, managed to hit it straight into the ground for the keeper to pick up, perhaps watching Balotelli play for Liverpool is not the best inspiration.

All in all a great Sunday night, well deserved 3 points, all hands on deck defending. Thank you to everyone who was part of it and the many supporters that came. Hopefully we can use this as catalyst to kick start our season and do the old Turkey proud! Bring on next week!