This week: yet another interesting fixture for us Vikings, the disciplined but definitely beatable Japan FC. ARE YOU READY TO EAT SOME SUSHI?

More Vikings are coming back from injuries, getting fit and ready to do battle in the starting eleven, however this gives the two coaches, Nick and Jonas, weekly headaches (and scheißerei for one) towards the weekend. Who will start? Who will be on the bench? Who will wash the kits? Who will be on time? Who will get a yellow? Who will get injured? Who will collect the fines? And who won’t make the first 17?

Because of these headaches (and scheißerei), the coaches decided to not announce the starting eleven right up until the sushi was about to be served. This might have led to some disappointed players on the bench, because some were craving for sushi…

A proper warmup followed. Three lines were formed and under the directions of our Captain Majahi Majahoo, muscles were prepared for the upcoming battle. It was all looking sharp with great long and short passes, one touches, two touches, one-twos etc. Nobody other than the Wall made sure our “newest” addition to the team, Craig Oblak, was warmed up and ready to parry anything the Japanese Pussies would fire at him.

With some motivational speeches from both coaches and Majahi Majahoo, it seemed that nothing could go wrong on this day. Eventually it turned out that almost nothing went wrong that day. But at the same time, not much went right either.

To keep an 80-min story short, not much was going on during the match itself. The motivational speeches seemed to have little to no effect, however, luckily for the Vikings, the sushi was not fresh either. It is very clear that the defensive force of the Vikings has embraced the tactics booklet of coach Jonas as their Bible, since the defence was standing their ground firmly, once again. Almost zero chances were given away during the entire match. Balls were being passed through the channels. On some occasions the Vikings also succeeded to launch some attackers, however most attempts turned into unlucky failure.

Talking about unlucky. As mentioned earlier, the Viking defence had given away close to zero chances when Toby (MOTM) gave away a corner kick. The Japanese Pussy took the ball and put it in the corner of the field. He took 2 pathetic steps backward and raised 2 hands. This was obvious code and the Vikings defence knew what was about to come. A possible dangerous ball to the front post.

As it was during the whole match, the Vikings had the set pieces under control. Until the unthinkable happened. This one moment in time that had a 0,05% chance of happening, happened. This one moment that would never happen, if it would be tried over and over again. This one moment that could not even have happened, if we wanted it to happen exactly like that. But it did happen.

For it was Del Burgo (yes the defensive legend who has never scored a header in his 27,5-year football career) who saw the extreme danger of this corner kick clearly. While he tried to clear the ball with his head, he misplaced the ball perfectly behind Craig Oblak in the net, giving him no chance to stop the attempt to clear the ball.

FC Japan 1 – Saigon Vikings 0

The remainder of the match was uneventful, more long balls were attempted to put through the channels, but without any real threat or success.

What should have ended in a 0-0, ended in even worse.

All there is left for me to say is “mea culpa”, next match will be ours !

GO VIKINGS!