A hot 3 o'clock kick-off at the Japanese Association for this one.

The less said about it, the better. This was a poor game of football with both teams finding it difficult to construct any sort of decent football. The first half could have gone either way. The Hotspurs, despite ill-preparation, managed to get the better of the early exchanges and could have gone into the break ahead. Both Ali and Paul M. had chances to lob the keeper to score, and Esad had a one-on-one with the goalie. Alas, it was the Vikings who took their chances and went in 2-0 at the break.

The Hotspurs picked up second-half and pressed forward in search of saving something from the game, but the Vikings were resolute in defence. Ali eventually managed to score with a very fine run and drive off the post from outside the area, but many other chances went begging and many scrambles in the six-yard box came to nothing. A good call for a penalty when Paul M. was bundled off the ball resulted in nothing. The Hotspurs certainly dominated the second half, but the result makes this a very disappointing performance.

On another note, the referring was generally poor for both sides, and the linesman on the far side second half really had no idea what he was doing.

With regards to man-of-the-match, Paul S. was dogged throughout and put in a lot of work, but I'll plump for Ali who worked his socks off throughout in central midfield on a very hot day, and his goal was a just reward for this.

A final note; 10 minutes before the kick-off we still didn't have 11 players. This doesn't help team spirit or preparation and with this sort of attitude we can't expect to rattle the cages of the leaders.