Warbler Vs. Scans

Vikings 5 – Saigon 2

On behalf of the Scandinavian Vikings, I would like to thank Saigon Raiders
for coming all the way to Bangkok to play a nice game of football and for
donating a ‘free round of beer’ afterwards.

*Ass-Ass Coach of the day, Mr. Bomber, had been given
strict instructions from head-coach, Jakob, to put a strong team together
and defend our football territory and so he did.

Saigon started out best and kept Vikings under pressure
for most of the first half and came to quite a few close calls before
the Viking defense let a raider go through to bring Saigon in the lead,
1-0.
Mikael Hansen was played free with a nice “Laudrup” pass from
yours truly but unfortunately he was ‘pushed’ a few meters
before the penalty area and missed a golden opportunity. Vikings continued
to play long balls with little precisions and as seen so often before,
struggled to keep the ball in possession.
A break came when Ole “Bomber” passed a nice ball to Mikael
who calmly sent the ball into the far corne, 1-1. Vikings started to wake
up and produced a lot of good chances.
The Viking breakthrough came after a corner-kick as the Saigon defense
did get the ball out of danger area, when it eventually landed in front
Johan who in Nistelrooy style quickly converted from a short distance,
2-1.

Half-time: Vikings 2 – Saigon Raiders 1

The late night escapades seemed to have taken its
toll as the Raiders looked very tired stepping into the 2nd half. This
lack of professionalism left more space for the Vikings to move
around. Erling Pakula, Johan Arvling and Keld “Piero” Bak all
had their big chances to make it 3-1 but it for some reason it simply
did not happen until Harri with a giant Finnish loop sent the ball behind
the Saigon goalkeeper, 3-1.
Saigon continued to produce chances and soon took advantage of the not-so-well
playing Viking defense and scored, 3-2. If it was it not for Reto’s suggestion
to play 2×45 min., Saigon could have gone home with a decent 3-2 defeat
but with 10 min. left it was to be punished.
Again Mikael underlined that he is not only a “wanna be topscorer”
but a lethal striker when offered the opportunity to play up front. Mikael
received the ball in the left side and without hesitation first-timed
the ball in to the back the net from a hard angel, 4-2. With the absence
of Palle “I take all free-kicks”, other players got a rare chance
to take a free-kick. Johan stepped up and nicely curved the ball over
the Saigon wall without reach of the goalkeeper, 5-2.

Saigon showed great comradeship by offering ‘free
beers’ at the London Pub and we accepted the challenge to come to Saigon
and play at their home ground in near future.

/Lars Jorgensen

*Ass-Ass coach = assisting assisting coach