LA Vale: 3 - LA Lions: 0
LA Vale arrive at UCLA to meet the LA Lions, a team who obviously pride themseves (no pun intended) on their name and strongly believe they are the ones to chew up the Vale, halting their unbeaten run.
With the first half well underway the Lions were holding Vale to a nil, nil draw. They were doing their best to live up to the coach's expectations as he declared from the sidelines later in the game: "We can beat this team four goals to zero!!" (All of his other coaching was in African, but he chose to tell his warriors this in English... psychological tactics.)
Vale created some fine chances with Nick Emmerson delivering some great searching passes to Deano and Patrice on numerous occasions, only for Dean to be ruled offside on many of his runs. The linesman had, it seemed, gotten so used to raising his flag on Deano that there were two occasions where he was put through and although clearly on side, although he was flagged for being off.
With the LA Vale midfield not giving the Lions room to create, Simone and Jezza were enjoying the afternoon with both showing their skills throughout the first half. Conor in the Vale goal was largely untested as the Lions, although playing some good football, never really looked dangerous in front of LA Vale's goal mouth.
Patrice had a clear chance but was denied by the Lions' goalkeeper and at half time the score was 0-0.
As the second half got underway Vale stepped up their game and sixteen minutes in, Deano passes to Simone, Dean screams for the return, Simone lets fly from thirty yards out and leaves the Lions' keeper helpless as the ball flies into the back of the net... what a goal! Vale are one up!
Five minutes later, Simone crosses into the box, Roselli sells the defenders a dummy and Deano is on the end of it, sticking it past the keeper, only to be ruled... yes, you guessed it... offside!!
The Lions attempt to roar back into the game and have two chances, both headed wide of the Vale goalposts. The Lions' coach isn't screaming about 4-0 anymore strangely he's only screaming at his players in their native tongue, one would assume for missing these chances!
Deano picks up a pass and is onside as he feeds Roselli, who slips a perfect pass to Cory after a run forward from defence. But Cory, in a one-on-one with the Lions' keeper, skews his shot wide of the Lions' post. Sean Shannon makes an impressive run down the left side of the field and crosses into Deano who receives a shove in the back for his efforts and the ref wastes no time in awarding LA Vale a penalty. Deano steps up for the spot kick and his low drive has the lions keeper leaping but unable to reach the ball as it flies into the back of the net. 2-0.
With LA Vale clearly stamping their superiority on the game, Jezza receives the ball, beats his opponent and picks out Chris Roselli who makes no mistake as he confidently powers the ball under the keeper.
Another fine performance by the LA Vale as the final score reads LA Vale 3, LA Lions 0.
Words by Jamie Donovan.
