Vikings Vs. Patana 1/4-Finale – 2nd Leg

Patana – Vikings 2 – 3

Vikings had all but secured their semi-final berth in the first leg,
winning 6-0 but still didn’t feel like losing the second game.

Coach Jakob was in Denmark, where he had a brunch-meeting
with the danish
national coach, Morten Olsen, under which they discussed how to utilize
the Vikings players better on national level.
A point they did not discuss however, is the managerial duty of arranging
referees for home games, but I am sure that many Vikings players will
point this out to Coach upon his return to Thailand. Fortunately Patana
knew a ref and so the game was only delayed for around 20 minutes. Maybe
the ref. should have taken a bit more time to prepare himself for the
game, normally one of the better refs available, he definately had an
off-day.

So
did the Vikings and they didn’t have the excuse of being called upon
with 10 minutes notice, though it seemed like they had just woken up.
The ball went back and forth without any big chances coming either way
until Peter Cleansheet handled the ball outside the penalty area, atleastthe
ref thought so. Patana scored on the freekick and was up 1-0. Vikings
had a few half chances to score before halftime, Erling hitting the post
and on a freekick a Patana defender in the wall clearly handballed in
the penalty area, however this time the ref did not see anything and instead
whistled for halftime – which brought up the italian genes in the asst.
coach, who when he heard the ref’s whistle was sure it was for a penalty
and had already planned his celebration run around the pitch.

In the second half Vikings stepped up their game and started passing the
ball around nicely, just like in the second half of the first game.
However after a run of good chances their spirit was crumbled by another
Patana goal.

Patana players started dreaming of another 5 goals
and advancement to the
semis, but Vikings showed the mental strength that has given them so many
victories this season.
3 quick goals by Lars, Erling and Mikael secured another victory and a
total scoreline of 9-2 now sees Vikings going to Pattaya next weekend
to
meet Racing Club in the semis.

This will be a very difficult match, Racing Club won
their conference and
have been extremely strong on home soil this season and with playmaker
Niclas out for the season with a knee injury and 3 players already gone
back to Europe, Vikings will definately arrive as underdogs. However with
the spirit and winning will that Vikings have shown in the past season
when it mattered, they might just be able to pull off another victory
and
go back to Bangkok preparing themselves for the finals.

Lars scored in his final
game of a glorious Vikings career, which was a
well-deserved farewell to the big attacker with the soft touch. Lars will
go back to Denmark to open up a chain of “smoerrebroed” restaurants
which
will serve the best of the danish coldcut kitchen in a warm athmosphere
of
silverpoles, balloons and exotic service. Good luck Lars, hopefully you
will soon find your way back to the Vikings team.

Palle