Not the type of game that we were expecting at all. We started well though with some pressure right from the start resulting in a nicely placed free-kick in our favour at the edge of the Nipponsâ?? penalty box after only two minutes of play. It was successfully converted by Jean-Philippe, in a Platini way. Then we continued playing good football for the next twenty minutes, creating a few chances, but not converting any. In the meantime, Nippons were gradually, but surely, waking up and mounting more dangerous opportunities for themselves. After some good pressure on our defence, they eventually managed to find an equaliser after 20 minutes of play. Then, it looked like as if we decided to give up the game already, with all of us making silly mistakes, giving the ball away cheaply, and basically, not playing anymoreâ?¦ The Nippons just had to go on counter-attacks when we were not literally giving the ball away straight to them. They added another two goals before half-time. Very poor.

 

We tried to re-focus during the second half, but quite frankly, that was woeful from us, very different from our competitive game against Ubin two weeks ago, which makes me think that this CNY break was not that welcome actually. During this half, Nippons added two more goals, with one of them being a very nice curled shot at the edge of the penalty box that left no chance to Dimitri in goals. We scored another goal, identical to the first one, from a wonder â??Platiniâ?? stylel free-kick, nicely dispatched by JP for his brace.

 

A very poor performance from us, that left a sour taste. Overall, it was a very disappointing performance, no fun, just a waste of time. Come on Gaulois, raise the commitment and letâ??s finish the season in a better way. Vikings are waiting for us on Saturday.