Shanghai Premier League

I guess by now all of you have sufficiently recovered from the world cup.
Perhaps only Fkamenkos might still be slightly inebriated, for not only did the Spanish side snatch the SPL world cup in Shanghai, but so did their B-team somewhere in South Africa, I heard.

For those of you who are playing in some summer leagues, we hope you'll do well there  (and if you want to post something here or perhaps on your team page, just let us know, always good to have some news).

For those who are not playing at the moment, we have some entertainment for you in the form of an interview with the Shifu who masters our grass.... Enjoy!

SPL Can you give a brief introduction of yourself ?

My name is Adam Christy and I am a 29 year old American.  I came over to China 2 ½ years ago with the idea of improving football pitches in Shanghai.  My background is in Golf Course Design and Management, so I have been directly involved with the grass industry for the past 11 years.  I own a company here called Grass Masters Inc. Shanghai, that does athletic field design and maintenance as well as all grass care needs.

SPL When did you start to get interested in grass ?

I became interested in grass maintenance when I was 18 and working on a golf course.  Loved being up with the sun and making things look nice.

SPL  Where did you get your grass master's degree ?

University of Minnesota and most of my education came from my experiences on the golf course and the little lessons I would get from my boss’s.

SPL What is the secret of a Grass Master ?

A good plan and a better calendar.  Patience also helps.

SPL  Why is the pitch of the SPL so much better now?

It’s all about the winter grass!  It needs time to get established before we start playing on it.  The whole season is basically played on the winter grass

SPL  Why do you hardly find good grass on any chinese pitches ?

I think sometimes it is not considered as a real necessity. You see nice parks built, even stadiums, with the grass in horrible shape.  I think over the next few years we will see an increase in grass pitches and more importantly pitches in good shape.

SPL  How is it possible that even at Wembley they cannot get a good playing grass pitch ?

I know that the pitch is relatively new and they keep switching out the grass after concerts and events.  That grass needs to get established with a good root system.  Without that, the newly laid grass will keep coming up and making the field unlevel. 

SPL  Where is the seed you use coming from and how you know it is not
fake ?

I get mine from Beijing, and always inspect one bag before I put it on the field.  I know what a good grass seed should look like.

SPL  If they fake you we might be playing on salads instead of grass??

I did get one shipment of seed that had seeds of an unwanted plant incorporated into the bag.  Good thing I checked or last year you guys might have been playing on soy crops.

SPL Why you like the SPL?

I think it is a good league that is very international with a good level of play that is fun to watch and participate in.

SPL What can we do as players to protect the field ?

Just understand the work and effort we put into the pitch and be respectful.  It is your field as well so if you see a divot, put it back.  All the little things you guys do will help in a big way.  I think this year has been a great example of everyone helping out and you can see the results, we have a nice pitch to play on each week.

SPL  Is true that you can make soccer fields in people's garden ??

Of course, if the space is right we can get your lawn in the same or better shape than the field.  We don’t repair windows though!

SPL Are you planning to open the  grass master university in China?

I am always willing to give advice and educate those who are interested in grass care, but opening up a University would be borderline giving away my secrets.

SPL Thanks Adam, for this wonderful interview. And thanks even more for taking such good care of the pitch!

For the article published in Global times, click here.
Thanks to Chris for the great publicity.
One remark though: Flamenkos is a Spanish-Belgium team... That's why you'll never see us sport orange!

Amigo's and Amiga's,

What a perfect day we had last Sunday ! The weather forecast
was calling for heavy rain and I got several calls of
worried players and as well Latina of course. The rain never
came and gladly the temperature dropped to a comfortable 23
degrees !

First we had the SPL Cup Final between Dulwich and the Lions!
There was a big Dulwich crowd and they were delighted to
see their team taking the lead after an own Lions goal.
Confidence was growing and the Lions remembered the great
train robbery of the Galacticos last season so they felt the
pressure ! Second half Lions started to play better and got
the equalizer. A few minutes later there was a brawl
resulting in two red cards which was a real pitty as over
all the game played fair by both teams ! As the teams were
getting tired there was more open space on the field and the
Lions took advantage of that and made two clinical runs
through the Dulwich defense 3-1 final score !

12 o clock onwards we had 11 countries competing in the
World Cup Fiesta ! Everybody was in a good mood and trying
to get into the finals. There were loads of goals and some
really good football on the 3 pitches and all games were
fair played without red cards !!

In the final we saw Spain beating South-Africa by 1-0 ! Well
deserved as Spain played the best Football on the day.
South-Africa (lions) looked tired after they played two
finals on the day !

At the end of such a perfect day nothing is better than to
have an ice cold beer with a BBQ and all your friends at
Latina ! The price ceremony was fun especially when Kevin
tried to blow the vuvuzela but failed to make noise
resulting in having him to down several caiparina's  !

Perfect way to end our season and on behalf of the SPL
Committee we would like to thank all our Captains, Players,
Referee's, Cai from Dulwich, Adam our Grass Master and
Angela of Latina and supporters of the SPL for a Great
Season !

Cheers / Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee!

You can flip through some pictures of the game and the party below.
You can download originals of same here

Amigo's and Amiga"s,

Finally the SPL Championship has been decided on the very
last playing day !

Yesterday was the BIG DAY for Japan as they could clinch a
first ever win of the SPL Championship against the Lions. As
usual they came early and in full force and with over 25
players they made the Lions look tiny with only 14 players.
The game started slow as both teams didn't want to make a
mistake and knew that one goal could be enough to win it.
The Pitch was wet and Japan hit a free kick low at Nicolas
the Lions Keeper. The ball was very difficult to hold and
the Japan forward were faster to react and tipped it in. The
lines man raised the flag for off-side, but Kevin already
gave the goal. So now we had a game Lions needed to score.
The pace of the game increased and it became a real battle.
Japan had fielded their fastest and best players and they
kept on running faster than Usain Bolt. However Lions tactic
was to play on the break and on their second break they got
the equalizer through Allan's header 1-1.
Second half was nail biting as a goal from either side could
seal the deal. Japan had a fantastic shot which looked to go
in but Nicolas saved it with his finger tops ! With 20
minutes to go the Lions got what they wanted as Uzi came
alone in front of the keeper and he kept his nerve and
scored the 2-1 ! Japan never gave up and it was amazing to
see the energy they had they never stopped running. However
the Lions managed to keep the ball more and more in
possession as they knew that they were very close to the
Champagne. When Kevin blew the whistle you could see
Japanese players falling on the field and :Lions jumping to
the sky !

This was a great final for our league season and one thing
is for sure our competition is getting stronger and stronger!

We hope to see everybody this Sunday 20th of June with
family and friends to enjoy our friendship and play our
favorite sport.

First we have the Cup Final and after that we have our own
World Cup Fiesta and the SPL Price Ceremony !! Don't miss
the action at Latina's 16.30 PM onwards !

Cheers Freek / SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee

Amigo's and Amiga's,

Soccer fever is spreading fast around the world ! There is
no vaccine for it whether you like it or not you cannot
escape football these days !

We are heading for a perfect finale of the SPL this season
as the Champions will only be decided in the very last game
! You can place your bets now ! Will Japan get their first
ever SPL Championship or will the Lions add one more to
their list of honours ! The game will be live broadcasted in
Tokyo and we expect all Japanese people living in Japan to
come to the field on June 14th and watch the game. The kick
off will be at 1530 PM !

Other teams will play their last games as well we have
Galacticos - Dulwich on Sunday 13 1600 pm and Hawks-Bulls on
14th June 1330 pm !

On 20 july we have the SPL Cup final between the Lions and
Dulwich and after that we have our own World Cup Fiesta with
12 countries participating in order to celebrate the end of
the Season ! After the tournament we will have the SPL price
ceremony and party at Latina next to the field !

Let everybody get the Football Fever !

Cheers !  Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee
!

Amigo's and Amigo's,

What a perfect Sunday it was ! Crystal blue sky 26 degrees
and green smelling grass ! We saw the friends and family
coming out and watch the games and players laid back after
their game to watch the others compete ! Life is good !

There was a lot of excitement at the games and we got
surprising results which is good especially as we are in the
decisive time for the SPL Championship !

Super 48 - Flamenkos 2-5 Best score this season for the
Super Nova's who can be proud for their improvement week by
week. I guarantee if they stay on in our league they wont be
in the bottom next season ! Flamenkos ended one of their
best season on a high by clinching the SPL third place.
Already there were some rumors floating around that next
season the third place is not enough for them ! The Spanish
and Belgium blend has proven an instant hit maybe a trend to
follow for other SPL teams !

ERS - Dulwich 1-2 All red game both teams were eager to win!
ERS have been struggling this season because quite a few
of their best players left last year. Despite the fact that
their result didn't come out as they wanted they kept their
team spirit and fair play always in tact. For that they
deserve a big compliment !
Dulwich is on a high after qualifying fr the SPL Cup Final
and that was enough to give them the three points despite
the absence fo Jamie and John Hinde, or was it the otherway
round they won because they didn't play ??

Bulls - Japan 2-1 The game of the weekend. A master plan
created by Bilgin to eliminate a full squad Japanese
Pokemon's seemed not to work as in the first 15 minutes
Japan could have easily taken the lead. However when Bilgin
ordered his players to "play like a man" and not like
pussies they got the message. Two goals was enough to push
Japan further and further into their own half. Second half
the Bulls could have scored more goals and Japan got more
nervous by the minutes !
In the end Japan got one back but were never in the game.
The after game speech of the Japanese Captain and Coach
lasted for three days, still they don't know what went wrong!

Lions - Hawks 6-1 Lions were pleased with the Japan loss and
needed to win versus the Hawks which is easier said than
done ! First Half was very competitive with the Lions
getting the best scoring opportunities but failing to score.
1-1 the first half score / second half the Hawks were
getting tired as they had no subs. 10 minutes before the end
of the game suddenly 4 players of the Hawks went missing as
they needed to attend a Chinese wedding ! At 6-1 Lions
agreed to stop the game and go for beers instead of scoring
more goals !

So here we are the SPL title will be decided on the last
game of the season on June 14th at 15.30 don't miss that
game Japan - Lions !

This Sunday there are two postponed games :

13.30 PM Super 48 - Hawks
15.30 PM Lions - Dulwich

Weather will be great so come and watch the games with an
ice cold beer in your hands !

Cheers Freek / SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee
!

Amigo's and Amiga's,

Finally the good weather arrived and with all other leagues
finished in the rest of the word all the the eyes are on the
SPL !

I had the pleasure of watching the Semi Cup Final Dulwich vs
Galacticos and what a "Thriller" it was. MJ must have been
proud......!

Dulwich started stronger and seems more eager to take a
place in the final. For 30 minutes there was no shot on
either goal and all the battles were fought over on the
midfield. I was about to fall asleep.....Just at the end of
the first half Dulwich scored a header from a free kick.
Second half it was the opposite Galacticos turned on the
"war" button and there was a series of attacks. They had
numerous occasions to score but finally Ned found the Net !
1-1 !
Dulwich could only defend and 8 minutes before time it
looked as Galacticos sealed it ! 2-1 !  Dulwich pushed
forward and almost got rewarded when a long cross seemed to
fly in but a brilliant safe of Santi saved the Queen !
However the following corner landed straight on the head of
Chris Balls and the ball flew thru the Net.
So it was a penalty shoot out ! This one can straight go
into the SPL records books. Both teams missed one but after
that every taker scored.......we were at 10-10 !! when the
drama unfolded. As all the players took a penalty it was
down to the goalies. Poor Santi who had a great game shot
over and the Dulwich goalie made no mistakes and shot
Dulwich into the SPL final on June 20th !

Flamenkos - ERS 7-4 Old rivals but no cards shown and goals
everywhere ! ERS was playing well especially in the first
half but a tactical move after the break to call back Danny
(after two years absence) as goalie proofed deadly and
secured the Flamenkos the third place spot this season.

This weekend we have 4 important games and the weather
forecast is excellent Sunny and 28 degrees !! So bring your
girlfriends to the field and show them your capabilities to
score goals and score credits !

9.30    Super 48 - Flamenkos
11.30  Dulwich - ERS
13.30  Japan-Bulls
15.30  Lions-Hawks

For some teams it will be their last game this season others
still have to catch up a few games !  Life is good now and
we need to enjoy it ! That means ice cold beers after a good
game of Football !

Keep 20 June free in your agenda as we have a Fun Tournament
plus the end of the season party + price ceremony !

See you all on Sunny Sunday ! Cheers Freek / SPL President
on behalf of the Committee !

Amigo's and Amiga's,

You only know what you miss if you don't have it ! So last
weekend I was in Singapore as coach of my sons soccer team
and I truly missed the action of the SPL. They were
competing in the sizzling heat for two days (Shanghai
weather is not so bad after all....) With  over  80 teams
from all over the region. Its interesting to see how fast
young soccer players are developing their skills. On one
side you see giant kids playing in the under 12 and they
would be taller than the average length of the SPL players,
excluding Japan ! On the other side you see real good
talented footballers who could easily be, within a couple of
years, one of our better players in the SPL. So our future
looks good and we hope to bring in more young and talented
players into our League in the years to come.

We had 4 games on the menu and were lucky the predicted
rainfall didn't materialize.

Japan - Hawks        3-1

Lions - Bulls            5-2

ERS - Galacticos    2-3

Dulwich - Super 48 5-1

So after this round we are left with two or three games for
each team and its confirmed that this year title will either
go to Japan or the Lions. It will be decided in the next
couple of weeks and maybe even in the last and final match !
The third place will as well be decided in the final games
and who knows maybe Super 48 can clinch their first ever win
! Exciting times for all of us especially with the World-Cup
fever starting to heat up !

Amigo's and Amiga's,

The Expo opening excitement is fading and now all eyes and
attention will be on the last playing rounds of the SPL.
There are several teams battling for glory and even Super 48
is fighting hard to get their first win of the season !
We got rain again last Sunday and it seems that this season
the weather continues to be a major (disturbing) factor.
Rain means a slippery pitch and it boils down to technical
play !  So lets see the results of this weekend !

Japan - Galacticos 6-1 Just check out the Galacticos report
of the game and indeed the early games for them are always a
challenge as alarm clocks "made in China" doesn't seem to
work on an early Sunday morning and the fact that it was
raining at 2 AM that was enough for some Galacticos player
to think that SPL games would be cancelled ! But don't
forget we have our Grass-Master Adam and the pitch was
perfect again so Japan was there with 30 players and they
were there hungry and keen to clinch their first ever SPL
Champion-Ship ! First Half was 5-0 just because of the
numbers and the second half Galacticos realized they wasted
a chance to give Japan their first loss this season they
drew 1-1 but that was only the second half.

Dulwich - ERS 1-1 Good battle of football and both side
struggled a bit to control the ball on the wet field.
Dulwich took the lead but were put behind when their striker
Jamie was send off. This gave the French players confidence
and they started to dominate the game. A fantastic header of
Yannick gave them a well deserved draw. During the
celebrations the goal scorer was almost killed as they tried
to find outs whether his chest could hold 10 ERS players on
top of him. Luckily for him / his team and the SPL he
survived....!

Super 48 - Flamenkos 1-5 Full credits to Super 48 and I
think their team spirit is unbelievable ! Having not won any
game and conceded over 100 goals they are always there with
over 20 player and they always put a smile on their face.
Honestly I love that they fighting very hard for that one
goal per game and versus the much better Flamenkos they got
it again. Think we can learn a lot from their team Spirit as
we all know how hard it is when you lose several games and
the spirit is down but they are the same team and nice
people when they started in our League ! I say Chapeau !
Hats-Off and have no idea how to say that in Japanese !
Flamenkos just has a "Bad Day in the Office" against Super
48 !

Bulls - Hawks 5-0 Hawks was not able to field enough players
for this replay game. But the key was that the friendship
and the fair-play was more important than the result and so
it was ! High-light for me was seeing Bilgin our "Blog
Master" playing in a Hawk shirt ! Not sure whether this was
a pre-signal for the 2011 transfer window which will open
right after the World-Cup !

For now we are really going to have a SUNNY SUNDAY and we
have all important games to watch ! Forget the Expo come
straight to Green City and watch the SPL games ! No queues
and we don't charge, free entertainment of the highest level
in Shanghai subject to the "made in China" alarm clocks of
course !


9.30 AM Japan - Hawks The former Champions versus the
potential SPL Champions, what else you wish for ??

11.30 AM Bulls - Lions Big game for both teams and I can
guarantee it will not be 0-0 !

13.30 PM Galacticos - ERS Perfect game for the bottom teams
who want to get out of the bottom so it will be a battle
field. England - France, a world cup semi final ??

15.30 PM Super 48 - Dulwich maybe a Super Surprise .......!

Enjoy the final games in our SPL season and remember the
Friendship and Fairplay are far more important than the
result so make sure we don't need to show red cards this
time !

Wish you Great Games and Sportsmanship on Sunday !

Cheers Freek / SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee
!

Amigo's and Amiga's,

Finally the Expo will be opened and for the people who have
been living here during the year long preparations it will
be a big relief. As construction will be stopped during the
Expo and the dust will be settled down so it will be a good
time to come and watch one of our SPL matches with your
family and friends in Green City. We can guarantee you the
entertainment and the Chinese Government will guarantee you
the nice weather !

We had a full program last Sunday with a few surprises !

Bulls - Galacticos 2-1 It was all or nothing for the Bulls
and a loss would have had big consequences for the players
or Bilgin either of them could have been fired without a win
! The Bulls were trailing after a Ned Kelly goal but started
to fight back and got two goals from Eric to seal the win.
Its said that Ned missed several goal opportunities blaming
it on the fact that he scored several times the night before
the game !

Japan - Flamenkos 0-0 Its very rare in the SPL to witness a
goal-less game. However this was one of the most exciting
games of the weekend. Both teams were in full attacking mode
and fighting for the one and only goal which would give
either of them the win. We saw players hitting the post and
goal keepers make saves as if they were "van de Sars" ! Due
to the draw Japan lost two points in the Champions ship race
and are now leading by only one point !

E-Rouge - Lions 1-4 Many many French players on the pitch
maybe that was the reason the first half was rather messy
not messi....! ERS was fighting hard but proved to be less
effective in front of the goal and even needed the help of
Adam the lions defender to score a beautiful own goal !
Lions had a bad half and a good half enough for the three
points.

Hawks - Dulwich 5-3 It was difficult for Dulwich as they
were behind again from the beginning 3-0 after 10 minutes.
Dulwich showed their fighting spirit and didn't want to give
up ! Unfortunately the Match was over-shadowed by two
red-cards !

Well this weekend there are no matches due to the opening of
the Shanghai Expo and the National Holiday on the first of
May so we can relax and prepare for the
final part of our SPL Season !

Cheers !  Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee
!