Amigo’s and Amiga’s,

We are happy to see that the Fairplay is back at the SPL ! The above picture taken by ERS was a nice gesture and appreciated by everybody. This Sunday was “cardless” which of course is always a positive sign as well !

ERS – Super 48 5-0 
We cannot deny it anymore as Super 48 is clearly stronger in 2010, the days of double digit losses are over for them, however the three points were very welcome to the French Red Stars as they struggle this year to win games.

Flamenkos – Hawks 6-0
Andrea struggled to get a team out and flamenkos came out with full force hungry for points and goals.

Lions – Galacticos 6-0
Lions were more hungry to win and 2 goals from Big Michael within the first 5 minutes set the tone for the rest of the game. Both teams enjoyed the ice cold beers at Latina after the the game and Lions are back on top of the SPL.

This coming Sunday we will have a full four games program. Weather forecast calls for some rain so pls keep an eye on the weather !
Ps note the new times for this weekend !

9.30 AM Flamenkos – Super 48 
The winner of this game will be allowed to enter the Cup Competition next week the loser will have a bye next week !

11.15 AM Galacticos – Hawks
Galacticos lost two in a row now and would like to get that winning feeling back and for the Hawks it will all depend whether they can field enough players.

13.00 PM Dulwich – Bulls
First game of the Dulwich in 2010 and a big one as the Bulls are strong this year: expect a lot of goals in this game.

15.00 PM E-Rouge – Japan
Last year around the same time ERS beat Japan 5-2 one of their best victories. Will history repeat? Come and see it for yourself.

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

Amigo's and Amiga's,

It was a pleasure to be out and play football as we had clear blue skies and a mild 12 degrees in Shanghai !

Japan - Super 48 4-0 
An all Japanese game !
The first half Japan took a 3-0 lead and hoped to score more goals the second in order to increase their goal tally as they would be equal points with the Lions because Lions didn't play.
However the second half it didn't work out as Japan's attack after attack had no result just one goal ! So watch out for Super 48 as they are getting stronger by the week !

Hawks - Bulls 3-3 - game suspended
I watched the first half and it was very good game with both teams going for the goals. Bulls had Nico back our last year top scorer and he unsettled the Hawks defense a few times. It gave the Bulls a 2-0 cushion at half time. Second half saw the hawks coming back and with a few minutes to play it was 3-3. Unfortunately for everybody there was an incident at the end of the game which is under investigation by the SPL Committee and resulted in suspension of the game.

Flamenkos - Galacticos 4-1
Galacticos was brought back to earth as the Flamenkos were playing better football most of the game.
Also important to mention was that Alex the Flamenko striker scored another 3 goals. As defender you better watch out for him as his is climbing on the topscorers chart with Maglev Speed !
Also noteworthy is that every game there seem to be more and more supporters of all ages coming to the Flamenkos games. This time we counted no less than 5 toddlers. Next game I assume they'll have their own daycare set up along the pitch...

This coming Sunday we might be lucky with the weather again.
The calls are for a blue sky and 11 degrees this time whereas on Monday it will rain !!

11.00 E-Rouge - Super 48 
A win will be good for our French Friends however the current form of Super might give them good resistance this time !

13.00 Hawks - Flamenkos
Flamenkos are unbeaten in 2010 and
will try to keep their run. For sure we can expect a lot of
goals !

15.00 Galacticos - Lions Big game almost as big as "el
classico" if you like football and like to see a fair-play
battle come and see this game !

Hope to see all of you on Sunday / Cheers Freek SPL
President on behalf of the SPL committee

Amigo's and Amiga's,

Havoc everywhere in the world on the weather front !
Its still a miracle we could play two games in Shanghai on Sunday !
Most of us do remember on the rainy days we used to play back in Europe, we called that typical "Football Weather" days !
That's what we had and four teams were lucky to be able to enjoy it. One of the happiest person I have seen for a while was Danielle of the Galacticos as she became the first Female Player to have ever scored in the SPL !
On behalf of everybody in the SPL congratulations to her and we do realize that now the pressure is on Miki.
Hopefully she will score soon !

ERS - Flamenkos 5-1
Sometimes the way you start a game can make the difference and especially in these weather conditions that might be true.
Half an hour before the kick off I counted 15 Flamenkos on the pitch and only 2 ERS players.
The game was good with fast moving football and the Flamenkos with the Spanish Blood were more deadly in front of the goal and that made the difference !

Galacticos - Super 48 9-2
To me it looked like the Super 48 are getting stronger as they got more possession and scored two good goals and it could have been more as they hit the wood work. But of course this kind of weather was a big plus
for the Galacticos who with the help of Danielle worked hard to get a better Goal Tally for this season.

Japan - Lions we called of out of consideration for the field.
The pitch is in great condition and it's as much in our interest as it is in the schools interest to keep it like that.

The weather outlook for this Sunday is excellent blue sky and 12 degrees so I am looking forward to a thrilling SPL weekend with great Games !

11 PM Super 48 - Japan 
An all Japan affair the pitch will look like down- town Tokyo and I am sure Super 48 will try hard this time to go for the up set of the season !

13 PM Hawks - Bulls
Will be interesting to see how both teams come out of their wintersleep. Attacking Football for sure !

15 PM Flamenkos - Galacticos
Last time they played the score was 6-5 so best is to come all down to the field and watch this game !

Frederik thank you for saving my life and as promised 2010 will be THE
Football year with many historic moments the SPL was the first to have one !

See you all this Sunday !
Enjoy winter in Shanghai not a bad place to be !

Cheers Freek / SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee

Amigo's and Amiga's,

We have had to protect El Presidente.
In his search for ever better and more exciting cup draws, he was about to go over the top.
Last season we had the highest cup draw at Yamada tower.
Last year Freek went all the way out to India for the Santa Cup draw.

Now for the 2010 SPL Cup draw we found him tying together rubber strings for an attempt to do a cup draw while bungee jumping of the newly opened Burj-al-dubai.
We had to interfere. We love our president too much.

So we went back to basics.
The innocent hand of a child did the SPL cup draw 2 nights back.
(child in case being Anna, daughter of our webmaster, you must have seen her supporting her dad's team Flamenkos at the sidelines, or perhaps you remember her stealing the corner post flag at one of your games)

You can double check on the draw in the movie below, and the result of the draw in the file to the side (ru.
OK, I admit. Perhaps the cards aren't very readable.
If you insist, you could download a better copy of the movie here (mind you, it's 165MB!), where the cards may be read.

But hey, it was a fair draw...
The fact that Flamenkos have to play the qualifier is proof of that, isn't it?

May the best team hold the SPL cup this year!


On behalf of the SPL Comittee,
Frederik Geirnaert

Amigo’s and Amiga’s,

First of all on behalf of the SPL Committee we wish everybody a healthy and happy 2010 !

As for the SPL we will continue to focus on the Friendship / Football Competition / Fun and Fairplay ! The first half of our competition is behind us and after the Santa Cup most of us went either home or stayed in China celebrating the New Year ! Basically it means that we are all out of shape and this will give opportunities for some surprise results in the games during the winter period ! We surely will get the World Cup Fever once we are getting closer to June and with the Shanghai Expo to open on the first of May we can expect more players to come in and more interest into our league as in the end we are the “United Nations” playing football on Sunday’s in Green City Shanghai !

This coming Sunday we have three games on the menu :


11.00 AM E-Rouge – Flamenkos 
The French tend to over eat during the New Year break so that could be an advantage for the Belgium/Spanish combo but for sure both teams will be very eager to get three points. So it will be a fair played battle !

13.00 PM Galacticos – Super 48
Both teams were one of the most active participants at the Christmas Party at Latina and in drinking Super 48 looked a bit stronger / Galacticos are looking stronger by the day so we can expect a lot of goals !

15.00 PM Lions – Japan
This will be a top game as both teams are still unbeaten this season and are equally strong / you can place your bets now !

 
The weather will be fine despite all the snow and freezing cold stories we hear in the USA and Europe and North China . Where is the global warming when you need it where is Al Gore ? Maybe we see him watching one of our games !

 

Let the winter games start ! See you all on Sunday / Cheers Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee