Season One - Games that stood out!

Baby Face Assasins (Rank 3) 1-0 Philly Reds(Rank 742)

A game that was hard fought and went right down to the wire. We had to take a very defensive approach as we were a small team playing the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thomas Kahlenberg, Alexander Farnerud, German Lux and other big names away from home. They had 29 shots and we had 3 !
Kahlenberg snatched the winner in the 87th minute after slotting home a rebound from a corner. A loss on paper but a victory on morale to have made the big boys work hard at home. I have pasted an image below that shows the individual player ratings from the match. A well earned man of the match for Peter Enckelman after he made 8 crucial saves, 4 of which came from Zlatan.

Baby Face Assasins vs Philly Reds FC - Player Stats

Philly Reds FC 0-0 Lionel the Great (NFA non-premiership cup Quarter- Final) - Home Leg
Lionel the Great 1-1 Philly Reds FC (NFA non-premiership cup Quarter- Final) - Away Leg

Possibly our best performance of the Season. We were up against a big squad and had to play at home first, never too easy playing at home in the first leg, you have to attack and know the consequences of letting an away goal through. Parking the bus in this leg would mean we would have a tough task ahead of us to score away. This was a very tough game to approach, but the boys did me proud. We defended our hearts out at home and wanted to score but could not. It was a tight game and we found ourselves pegged back, ending up with 5 in defense and 5 in the midfield at the final whistle. Below are the images of the final match stats and the formation we had to resort to in the last 25 mins, to make sure we did not conceed an away goal.

Philly Reds FC vs Lionel the Great - Match Stats
Formation for the last 25 mins

A week later the Reds flew down to Argentina to contest the game of their season. With things looking tricky in the league, we had to make sure we gave our best in the cup quater-final. Apart from the silverware, a lot of money was on stake and a chance to attract potencial sponsors for next season. We had to score, because 0-0 would take it to extra time and that would favour the opposition who were playing in their backyard. One goal would assure that they needed atleast two to win. The referee blew his whistle on what looked like a perfect day for football.

Ozil got on the scoresheet in the 10th minute for Lionel after Enckelman squandered the ball while defending a free kick taken from 25 yards out. It was early and we had our task cut out, there was no looking back now.

We contained ourselves for the next 20 minutes, making sure that we don't concede another, that would've been game over. Ian Harte went off injured around 30 minutes, a player we would have loved to have for the rest of the game.. our set piece specialist. At half-time I had to spur the lads on, reminding them that if they won, they could tell this story for years to come.. beating a squad three times better in a cup quater-final does not happen on every saturday afternoon, now does it?

The team came out all guns blazing .. Zinco made a killer long overhead through ball down the left flank which Valayev crossed into the box to meet Cordova's head.. slotted into the top corner from the penalty area... Cordova ran across the turf, kissing his badge and pointing to his son in the stands, job half done.. I have three pictures below that describe this goal..

1) Zinko's overhead through pass down the left wing
2) Valayev's cross into the box
3) Cordova heads it into the top corner

The opposition knew they had to go all out attack now, as the needed another goal to go through. We knew that another goal would assure us a win, but it's always easier to defend away than score away, that too against such a formidable opposition. We shut up shop and blocked every attack they made.. they had 31 shots in all and we had 4 , but the scoreline read 1-1 at full time, and the Phillies had painted Bueno Aires Red...

Lionel the Great vs Philly Reds FC - Match Stats

Hope you enjoyed that.. Season 1 - Team stats, Player Stats and Awards coming soon. Followed by Current team and new signings for Season 2.

Cheers,

Rahul Samat
Chairman and Manager,
Philly Reds FC