Match Review: Olympique Gaulois Singapore vs TGA Rangers FC

• MD Santiago Sanguinetti
• ST Dani Pardon
• ST Eric Clermont
• -- Remi Tache
• -- Lionel Bastos
• -- Adrien Dambre
• -- Marc Sans
• -- Yann Weishaupt
• -- Mathieu Debrand
• -- Miquel Peña
• -- Jorge Garcia

• GK Christophe Aprile
• -- Moustafa Nait cherif
• -- Andrei .

OG faced the champions with a decimated team due to injuries, suspension, farewell in Phuket. But the guideline was simple: "It is football, it is not always the best team that win". Keeping that in mind we knew we will not perform our best display but we were armed and to accept the challenge. OG started poorly, or maybe TGA started very strong, creating at last 2 or 3 1vs1 against our keeper in the first 15min. Fortunately for us lack of clinical finish or amazing saves from Miki kept us in the game. On one of our first offensive Jorge found himself 20m away and triggered a shoot with a difficult rebound right in front of the keeper. The slippery pitch played its toll on the keeper that could not block it and Marc followed well to push it in. 1-0 against the run of play. 10min late OG doubled the score mark thank to a nice move and a good cross from Marc again. Dani made it count with a series of nice few touches before to finish from close range. 2-0 HT and almost a 100% accuracy in front of the goal for us. In 2nd half, OG boosted by the 2 goal lead hold strong without conceding many chances. We looked sharped in the counters to even kill the game. But 25min before the end of game, Sharples converted a soft penalty ho obtained himself to make it 2-1. OG hold the result from there to make it a very important 3pts before facing SFC. Each player performed really well today. Many outstanding performance starting from Miki in goal, Lio & Adri at the back and Dani upfront. But MOM goes to Santi who delivered all day. He managed to keep last year best player quite for 60min, making him move onto the other side. Well done to TGA for a great game as they deserved better. But we will take the 3points. Congrats to Rob. No yellow card on a physical but fair game.

• Adam Erickson GK
• Fraser Anderson DF
• Jordan Laing DF
• Hiromitsu Nakaue DF
• Chris Jones DF
• Jonathan Cloak DF
• Nathan Bryer MD
• Ryan Shanter MD
• Salvatore Adaldo ST
• Mike Sharples ST
• Yuto Nagai ST

• Dan Ousby DF
• Jonathan Lukito MD
• Rob Whitworth --

Missed Chances

The game eventually kicked off on a waterlogged pitch after a short delay, with 40 mins to be played each half. We started brightly and created a number of clear chances, including having a rebound goal strangely ruled out for offside that we found to be a harsh decision. After some collective lapses in concentration, we somehow found ourselves 2-0 down. We surged forward to try and find a goal before half time, only to either miss the target or have the OG keeper make some solid saves. At half-time we felt that we deserved more from the first half and wanted to continue to play our game and create chances in the second half. That never really happened and OG had the better of the second half with our players looking rusty from another 3 week break in our fixtures. The back 5 of OG were superb in the second half and their number 9 always looked dangerous on the break, with their midfield picking him out regularly. We scored a penalty towards the end of the game to make it 2-1 but could not create the same volume of chances as the first half and OG held on for the win. A bizarre game in which we conceded goals in our best period and scored in our worst period. Congratulations to OG as they played with a great spirit and determination to grind out the win, we look forward to the return fixture.