3United faced off against long-time rivals, Longtang, on a grey, drizzly Saturday.
At the first whistle it was Longtang who had the momentum, pressuring 3United hard for the first 20 minutes. The defense fended off all major threats and eventually started taking charge of the game. It started with a few counters but then turned into a full scale charge. 3United’s first goal came off of a corner struck by Joe Williams and finished off with a bullet of a header by the beast in the back, Alejandro Verni. Shortly after that, Edouard Simonnet passed the ball to Nick Law, who had snuck through the Longtang defensive line, and put it cleanly into the net to give 3U a safe lead of 2. However, 3United was not finished yet, Guillaume Jeannerot sent a ball across the box to Joe Williams coming along the right side, neck and neck with a defender. But through sheer will-power he managed to get his foot to the ball first and hammered a ball across goal into the side netting. The first half came to end with 3United leading 3-0.
The first 20 minutes of the second half were goalless despite much sloppier play all around. And this time it was Longtang who was able to get the first score of the half. They took advantage of a few bad passes by 3United and eventually ended up in the box and got off a rocketing shot on goal. The ball was saved on the first attempt by Matthias Kuck but Longtang were able to put it in off the deflection despite the 3U defenders scrambled efforts to get a clear on the ball. Score: 3-1. However, to Longtang’s disappointment, this focused the 3U team and play started to take form again. Alvaro Roca had the ball one on one with a defender and despite his best efforts could only muster a ball that went straight into the defender instead of on goal. Unfortunately for the Longtang defender, his momentum ricocheted that ball straight into goal to give 3U back their three goal lead. There were a few more pushes by both sides in the final minutes but the game ended without any more action. Final score, 4-1 to 3United.
Man of the match: Alvaro Roca
