Saturday was the day we had been waiting for since months. It was the final game that would decide about whether we would keep the chance alive to crown our fantastic season with the first SIFL league title in the ReUnited history. Only a win over the Lions would leave us with this chance. The Lions were of course unbeaten since more than one year and they were the only team that managed to beat us in the league this year. We were ready for the big battle.

It was the first really hot summer day this year and we came with a big squad to the Songjiang pitch. Supporters from our brother team 3U joined us as well as wives, girlfriends, children and other supporters. Our starting line-up was Cody in goal, David and Thomas on the fullback positions, Seb Kühn and Will in central defense. Karsten, Ronald and Rob started in midfield, while our attacking line was Steve, Alex and Sebastian Andersson. Together with Luismi, Mandela, Eitel, Glenn, and Adam this was a very strong team for that day and due to our tactics and the summer heat we changed a lot during the game.

The game started with us sitting rather deep and Lions starting to push us early on. We focused on stopping their midfield and countering their attacks. This resulted in mostly midfield actions and no clear goal chances on either side. Most dangerous was a free kick by Azz just outside our box that went closely over the crossbar. However after roughly half an hour we lost a ball in midfield and left Lions to much space on the left side. Charles dribbled into the box and from a difficult angle put the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead. It remained 1-0 until halftime without any great happenings until then.

The second half started with a bang. Only about 5 minutes into the half Lions forward Dave got into an argument with our centre back Seb and things got a little bit too heated. The referee punished Dave with a red card and Seb with a yellow one. We clearly saw our chance now to get back into the game. From that moment on we pushed deep into Lions’ half, however there were not enough clear chances to create real danger for their goal. Lions only focused on counter attacks now, but we stopped most of them already in midfield. Our efforts grew more desperate as we could not find our way through the well-organized Lions defense. In the last minutes off the game a shot by Mandela that was slightly off was as close as we would get that day. It remained therefore 1-0 until the end and we would finish the season on second place.

We congratulate the Shanghai Lions for an incredible performance this season and a third consecutive SIFL title with only one game lost in three years! We hold our heads high as we have given this great team a real challenge until the last minute and cannot wait to do so even more next year and fight for the title yet again.

So although every single player felt a great sense of disappointment right after this defeat, we are proud to have played by far the best season in our history with a second position in the league, a runners-up in the Hebiguchi cup and a semifinal in the SIFL Cup. Later that night we celebrated this in an appropriate manner with our legendary annual award party at our new sponsor bar Park Tavern. It was an epic night and a worthy end to our season.

Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee