Vikings Vs. Patana 1/4-Finale – 1st Leg

Vikings 6 – 0 Patana

The long awaited first leg of the quarterfinals didn’t disappoint the
hungry scans. On the pitch where they celebrated winning the Cup, they
felt comfortable that they would take the important first leg against
Patana. On paper Scans had homefield advantage, so in the pregame speech
Coach put emphasis on keeping a cleansheet.

Firsthalf was very open with the ball moving from
one end to the other.
Peter Cleansheet appeared to have unsteady hands on the first touch,
concerning the crowd, but quickly regained his usual self.

Chances went both ways until the Patana goalkeeper
handballed outside the
penalty area and correctly was given the red card. After that Vikings
took
more and more command of the game, while Patana quite naturally spend
most
their energy defending with only 10 men left.

The best chance of the half came on a rebound that
Palle picked up but
only managed to touch past the keeper and before it crossed the line a
quick Patana defender cleared it by rebounding it off the toppost.

Vikings had the wind in their back and played too
many long balls that
drifted away from the attackers, so the halftime tactics was to involve
midfield more in the game.

This worked to perfection – as Vikings quickly took
possession in the
second half, it didn’t take long to finally get the first goal of the
game. A superb pass from the right side by Ole Bomber was headed home
by
Anders. This took some pressure off the hometeam and they played with
much
more flow from then on.
It didn’t take long for a second goal and at the third it seemed that
Patana succumbed and quickly a fourth, fifth and sixth goal followed.
It
would take too long to describe these wonderful goals and to be honest
I
don’t even remember in what order they followed but goalscorers can be
seen above.

So it should seem as if the Vikings are heading for
Pattaya for the
semifinale clash, but this is football so anything can happen they say.
However it will take a rejuvenated Patana team to turn things around next
weekend, same time, same place. Surely they will play for pride, but
Vikings will play without pressure and a single away goal should put the
overall win in the bag.

Coach will not participate in the return leg due to meetings in Copenhagen
with the Danish Football Association (topic top secret) and has told Asst.
Coach, in words that could not be misunderstood, that if a semifinale
berth is not awaiting upon his return from Denmark – Asst. Coach better
be
far, far away hiding on some remote, unreachable island.

Player of the game was Ole Bomber – playing strong
defense as ever, as did
the entire defense – Michael, Staale, Bjoern and defensive midfielder
Sharad – whos timing in the air was superb.

Thanks to Staale and Andras who played their last
game for Vikings before
returning to Europe – both have been given free transfers by Coach in
graditude for their effort during the past season and they have both
signed lucrative contracts at lower league level in Europe. Staale will
next year be trying his luck in the new popular combisport of shouting
contest and pancake eating in the belgian 2. division at Waterloo
Wildcats. Andras will return to Sweden to open a chain of “Snus”
retail
outlets while promoting his latest book “How to be second in free
kick
shooting” – which he, by the way, denies being the reason for returning
to
Sweden!! Good luck to these two brave Vikings, they will be sorely missed
on and off the pitch.

Thanks to Patana for hosting our homegame and for
playing a clean and fair
game as it should be. Hopefully the atmosphere can be as positive next
weekend.

See you next Saturday.

Palle