After last weeks cup defeat to Bulls Head it was once again time to fight for points in the league standings where the Vikings have slipped to second last in the table. Again many players were missing which seems to be the major problem this season.

Lineup: Marcus; Joel, Breitner, Martin V, Hallas; Mofok, Chris, Andreas, Jannik; Fran, Ruj.
Subs: A and Lek

The opponent Anatolia was a much changed team since two seasons ago when the Vikings played them in Div. 2. Vikings set out to pressure Anatolia on their half of the field and it gave some half chances to take the lead. The defense worked well with Martin V and Breitner in charge. It started raining which made the field unpredictable and the through passes to the strikers mostly came to nothing.
Vikings did appear to have taken the lead as Andreas chased down a long ball and managed to put it past the keeper and into the empty net. Somehow the linesman called it offside which was an unbelievable decision as Andreas was at least 2-3 meter onside as he started his run. Shortly after Anatolia was awarded a questionable free kick and as it often happens in football took the lead. 0-1.

So instead of being up the Vikings would now once again have to fight back from a goal down. There was not a lot separating the two teams at this stage but Marcus did well to save some good shots and keeping the Vikings in it. At halftime the score was 0-1.

From the beginning of second half it was a determined Vikings team that set out to get something from the game. There were many hard challenges and a couple of yellow cards but it was a display of good attitude. Ruj and Andreas often caused the Anatolia defense some trouble and as the lone Turkish guy in their team failed to clear a ball Ruj was suddenly alone with the keeper. Ruj had no problems to outplace the keeper and getting the equalizer. 1-1.

Anatolia took over more of the ball possession but often they looked ineffective in front of goal. Vikings mostly resolved to counter attacks and might as well have taken the lead with Ruj heading just wide of goal with only the keeper to beat. Later Andreas was brought down in the penalty area but once again the referee’s decision was not in favor of the Vikings. With less than ten minutes to go it seemed the teams would settle for the draw but it wasn’t to be. Instead a player from Anatoloia scored the winner and as the Vikings pushed forward in search for the equalizer it was Anatolia that scored once again. The game finished 1-3.

Man of the match was Andreas.    

Match report by: Jannik