Christmas is over - welcome to 2010 and 2nd half of cosmoleague.
I'm sure that most of our players were looking forward returning to the football pitch and get a chance to lose some of the additional x-mas kgs.

Bottom table Hollandse were the opponents at SJI. One of those pitches that "look good from far, but was far from good". Anyway it was a decent pitch and everyone was just keen on getting started. We began the match with our attacking mindset and both Peter DT & Tommie had huge chances to secure the lead early on, but the finishing was lacking a bit. We kept looking dangerous going forward and should have scored on 3-4 occassions. Unsure if that meant we took things a bit lightly in defense, but Hollandse somehow managed to capitalize on our slack defending to take the lead. 1-0 and a wake-up call for the boys in red. Meanwhile Peter DT twisted his ankle in a tackle, which resulted in a few weeks on crutches and some torn ligaments.

We continued to push forward and were buzzing like bees around the dutch penalty area. Good long range efforts from Morten Ranck and Thomas "The horse" Elbo kept the Hollandse keeper busy. Cala fed Tommie with some nice through passes, but the latter was hesitating a bit and was fairly tackled before getting his shot away. The equalizer finally came, when Tommie's man marker was left stranded after a long Thomas Elbo pass and the low, powerful shot went past the goalkeeper. 1-1 and It was time to push on for the winner, allthough it remained all square at the break. Our vice-captain Martin Just also left the field injured, as a dutch elbow made him bleed from the nose, leaving Martin with a suspected fractured nose.

Second half was quite similar to the first half, as Vikings pushed on for the decisive 2nd goal, while Hollandse fighted their a**** off to withstand the pressure. Good chances felt to Chris, Tommie & Cala, but the winner only came when Chris was brought down inside the box and a penalty was rightfully awarded. Tommie stepped up and made no mistake. 2-1 and it was time to protect the lead and maybe seal the deal with a goal at the end.
We managed to close the Dutch down, as our rock solid defense kept them away from any major chances. We didnt manage to bag another goal at the end, even though Soren Dyne Larsen had a glorious opportunity.

Man of the Match: Jakob Bergholdt

Thanks to Hollandse & the men in black for a good 2010 Cosmoleague opener. Again, thanks to our cheerleaders and everyone who came out to support us yet again. Speedy recovery to our injured players Just & DT and all the best to Dutch in their upcoming matches.