A Vikings team without 3-4 first 11 players available, but still with a strong squad were happy to have a 5 o'clock kick off after 3 consecutive 3pm games. The Vikings starting 11 included 4 players with a chance  to redeem themselves from poor performances last week (Rafa, Hund, Jesper and DT), and let it be said now that the 4 all delivered solid performances.

The Vikings came into the match with great energy and from the first minute we made every tackle count, and it did not take more than two minutes before
a Vikings attack started by Bugis (while he could still run) saw Tommie taking on two defenders, finished of by cross to Dyne Larsen who did not make any mistake in "chesting in" the ball to make it 1-0 Vikings.

The rest of the first half was dominated partly by Swiss and partly by a poor referee who had decided that whenever Tommie looked at the ball it would be a freekick for our Swiss opponents - No need to man mark our star player,
the ref did well in marking him out of the game.

Some 8 minutes into the game a scramble in the Viking box ended up with a challenge on a Swiss player and penalty was correctly given, however a shame the referee missed the a swiss handball 2 seconds earlier.
However as a sort  of justice the Swiss player missed the penalty. For the next 20minutes the game continued in great pace  and both Casper and Tommie had decent chances. In these situations they probably should have made a short passes to Dyne Larsen who would have been 1-on-1 with the Swiss goalie.

In the other end DT did a great disciplined defensive job as a right winger with 2 (sometimes 3) Swiss players constantly attacking in his side. In the centre of the park Elbo and Johan had another great performance with great tackles and alot of running, but only due to two-three fantastic saves from Steven in goal and a last second sliding tackle from Rafa, it was still 1-0 at halftime.

2nd half started and the pace dropped by quite a bit as both teams had used a lot of energy in the first half, and while the Swiss looked more dangerous on set pieces the Vikings still looked dangerous on counter attacks with Chris, Tommie, Dyne and later on Charni all threatening to seal of the game - but however once again our players (this time Chris) failed to make the short pass to Dyne Larsen that once again would have had a good chance of a goal and Dyne Larsen himself were guilty of not gifting Tommie a 100% chance, as he stumbled. Marco came on for Bugis with 25minutes to go and did a good job neutralising the Swiss pacey winger.

With 13 minutes to go the Swiss were awarded a very very thin penalty by the linesman, and this time the Swiss player did not fail to convert. The game looked set to finish 1-1, but Tommie had other ideas when he once again rounded a couple of Swiss defenders and this time it was Chris who after a few touches made it 2-1 Vikings of the Tommie assist. Vikings made the last substition straight goal after the goal with some 8 minutes left to play, and Buck Seng contributed well with a few good tackles on the midfield, while the defense held tight - and it all ended with a well deserved 2-1 win for the Vikings.

MOM for the Vikings went deservedly to Steven, who had a great game in goal, but in general it was a team effort the secured the win for the Vikings.

Thanks to the Swiss for a great game, where especially the first half was played at an extremely high pace. As for the men in black, I can only hope/ask that every referee starts each game with "fresh eyes", what we saw Saturday just was not good enough.

Next up is Casuals, a game we very much look forward to. 

Rafa