Amigo’s and Amiga’s,

Indeed time is flying and suddenly we see all kind of Christmas decaration popping up in Shanghai. That’s a reminder of the Santa Cup to be held on December 18th. So keep that date free in your busy agenda !

We got a few surprise results last Sunday but the high-light for sure was the lack of cards which means that all the games were played in a very friendly manner! No cards for the Pistolera Bulls, Bilgin is a changed man and it is having a positive influence on his players, no cards for the hawks and no cards for the Hard Days Night, god bless they had a bye this weekend as otherwise there wouldn’t be a SPL record!

Pistolera Bulls – Flamenkos 4-1
Flamenkos opted for the “let the Bulls win first” strategy, but they ended up struggling as the Pistolera Bulls were in good shape as they decided to skip the sleep and went straight fm the dance floor into the game. Bilgin comments on early kick offs:  “bring them on”! Flamenkos were not finding the right players in the right position and soon it was game over 4-1!

Super 48 – Japan 3-3
Waigaoqiao turned into a Ginza arena with so many Japanese players running around! Well Super 48 clearly improved this season and we don’t know how they do it but many teams find themselves missing numerous opportunities against them. Could it be some black magic ceremony over the goalposts? Or is it the Super 48 goalie who by his posture can cover the whole goal area? Anyway Japan took the lead 1-2 in the first half and kept trying to score more but scored only one goal. So Japan won the first half 1-2 and Super won the second half 2-1. Unfortunately they had to share the points one for each team!

Galacticos – ERS 0-6 Galacticos are struggling as they lost a few good players like Santi who left Shanghai as well captain Mike was missing for the game. ERS were happy to put several of their players on the score sheet except for one as that was an own goal.

Cowboys – Hawks 1-11
Usually it should be the Cowboys to shoot but this game it was free shooting for the Hawks. With the win the Hawks are on top of the SPL!

Round 5 weather forecast is good and sofar no complaints about the weather in Shanghai!

We would like to remind the Captains that in case a player is injured and he goes down he needs to leave the pitch and can only re-enter from the middle of the pitch upon approval from the referee to come back in play.

1000 -1200 Cowboys- Galacticos

1200 -1400 Super 48 – Hawks

1400 -1600 Hard Days Night – Lions

1100-1300 ERS – Flamenkos at Waigaoqiao

Lets keep the cards in the pockets and enjoy the SPL Games !

Cheers Freek / SPLPresident onbehalf of the SPL Committee !

Amigo's and amiga's,

 We already have had 4 rounds of SPL games and I can conclude that we are off to a good start! Our spirit of the games is competitive but friendly.
Currently I am on the road in India and it makes you realize how fortunate we are to playfootball on good grass pitches every Sunday. There is no football here, no grass pitches and every tv channel shows cricket and cricket and cricket. After all china is a good place for us and it does help that the local people are all football crazy!


Galacticos - Lions 1-2
First game of the SPL at the Shanghai Football and Rugby club! Fantastic facility and great staff + beer! If you talk about efficiency that's what the galacticos were showing the first half: one attack, one goal! Lions 8 attacks no goals. The second half however saw the lions take the lead by two goals from Jilles. Credit to the Galacticos who never gave up fighting for the points.

Japan - Cowboys 9-2
When I met the japanese team at blue frog they were all smiles, first win of the season and a record score line. The cowboys are struggling with the level of our league but I am sure they will improve going forward.

Super 48 - ERS 1-1
You can call it a suprise result but I can tell you that super 48 improved: they defend well with the famous blue wall and now have a few new fast strikers and I heard that they will be active in the transfermarket again after the Santa Cup. ERS will have to get over it and look for thethree points next game!

Hard days night - pistolera bulls 5-2
Battle of the sponsors ! Hard Days Night are having a big squad nowadays and maybe that's what broke down the Pistoleras. Highlights were two penalties converted by the Pistoleras including one of the maestro Bilgin himself. It is said that whoever misses a penalty in their team will pay forall food and drinks fr the others after the game! For Hard Days Night our grassmaster Adam scored which doesn't happen that often!
Mcgoo thought he was skiing down hill slaloming 5 opponents and finnishing nicely: Goal of theseason?
Let's see, we will have a vote at the end of the season!
First win forHard Days Night and a team to keep an eye on! Bilgin said they
lost against a team who were too good for them on the day! Fair comment!

1000-1200 Pistolera Bulls – Flamenkos
1200-1400 Galacticos – ERS
1400-1600 Cowboys – Hawks
1000-1200 Super 48 – Japan atWaigaoqiao ~


Greetings from India and I can tell you I will be happy to be back to China
theland of Football !



Cheers Freek SPL President on behalf of theSPL Committee

Amiga’s and Amigo’s,

Well everybody likes to score goals, but this weekend was exceptional. We got an average of almost 8 goals per game. Mama Mia where can you find such an entertainment? Forget visiting a Chinese Circus! We have our own SPL Circus. We had two “Extreme Thrillers” which would have made MJ proud !

Galacticos – Flamenkos 1-5
Comments from both Captains was that their teams didn’t play well. Half time it was 0-2 for the Flamenkos and by scoring another three goals in the second half the Flamenkos cannot be too unhappy about that and for now they have 9 points out of 3 games !

Pistolera Bulls – Japan 6-4
Thriller number 1! Maybe Japan didn’t read my previous reports. It's never good to take a lead versus the Pistolera Bulls as you will enrage the Bull. The strategy should be to let them win until 10 minutes before the end and then you enrage while the Bull is sleeping! Japan was leading 1-3 and thought they had the game in the pocket early in the second half. Pistolera Bulls were on fire and equalized to 3-3 while they were celebrating Japan already netted a counter attack and took the lead back at 3-4. The last 20 minutes Japan imploded and the Pistolera Bulls found a new hero, Ayrthon who scored a 40m range missile plus another 4 goals ! No cards not even for Bilgin ! Great performance !

Super 48 – Lions 3-5
Lions were surprised to find only 8 Japanese players before kick-off. Usually there are plenty of them but for some mysterious reason they were missing. Could be part of the strategy to make the Lions fall asleep and that’s what exactly happened. A combination of the beautiful weather with the lack of opponent that took away the motivation! 1-1 half time and second half Super 48 with a full squad got a penalty and took a surprise lead. Super is better this season with more speed upfront however the Lions scored 4 goals in 10 minutes to remind that they can score any time any moment.

Hard Days Night – Hawks 3-4
Played at Century Park we saw a physical hard game with both teams going for the win. Hard Days Night took a quick lead but the Hawks were fighting back 1-2 half time score. Kevin had a busy evening especially in the second half with several bookings to be made partly due to the score line sequence which was not for the weak hearted persons! Hard Day Night came back to take the lead helped by a penalty 3-2 but soon Hawks equalized 3-3. In the 81st minute Hawks scored the winner 3-4 of another SPLThriller !

From now until end February we will have one game played at the Shanghai Rugby and Football club at WaigaoQiao from 1000 to 1200. Great facility with Clubhouse, changing rooms and showers. The map will be posted on our website and attached by Yamada-san’s email. Last Sunday we received the first league fee and no surprise as its was given by Japan. Please be reminded we need to fee 15000 rmb latest by mid November so pls make arrangements !

We have round four already this coming Sunday. Weather is calling for some rain but lets see / you will get a notice / text message on Saturdays around 1800 PM in case of early cancellation.

1000-1200 Cowboys – Japan

1200-1400 Super 48 – ERS

1400-1600 Hard Day Night – Pistolera Bulls

1000-1200 Galacticos – Lions at Waigaoqiao Rugby Club

Enjoy the games and enjoy the most attacking football league in the world the SPL !

Cheers Freek / SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee

Amigo’s and Amiga’s,

Well what a “Sports Weekend” it was. In order of importance we had our second SPL round of the season with 20 goals and 4 fair and friendly played games in Jinqiao Green City ! After that for the lucky ones who could watch it there was the World Cup Rugby final. Full credit to the French team who came so close to write Rugby history and gave the All Blacks a real dosis of fear factor “10” ! if this was not enough we could watch the “Manchester Derby” Live ! It turned out to be the worst day of Mr Ferguson but for many others one of the best days in their lives !  

ERS – Lions 1-2
ERS looked dangerous from the kick-off ! Lions needed to defend strong to keep a clean sheet but got help from the cross-bar when ERS took a free kick. Half time 0-0 but ERS scored after 15 minutes in the second half and were looking for an upset ! However the Lions proved to be strong in the last 15 minutes of the game and scored two late goals to clinch all three points !

Pistolera Bulls – Hawks 3-4
A real SPL thriller ! Andrea tried to confuse the opponent and Kevin the referee by playing in white t-shirts, blaming the laundry company for not delivering the jerseys on time ! Bilgin maybe got his strategy wrong as they were leading 1-0 at half time and took a 3-1 lead in the 70th minutes as usually they come back from a losing position. After that the drama started as both teams decided not to play with a midfield any longer so both teams were either defending or attacking. It was raining penalties and the Pistolera Bulls goalie made some heroic saves but the last penalty killed the Pistolera’s !

Japan – Hard Days Night 2-2
An entertaining match right from the start until the end. The Japan players were running so fast that within 10 minutes they were leading 2-0 ! Jon Banks out for several months with a bad knee injury took the coaching job together with Steve and started to worry whether they will make it until Christmas ! However Hard Days Night are having a very good mix of young talents with experienced old goats ! The second half belonged to the HDN’ers who pushed back the Japan. Two goals by Henrik gave both sides a point. Matt, new to our league, had an interesting tirade against the referee for about 5 minutes at half time not realizing that our referee will not understand a single word of English, its like you are talking to the Great Wall !

Flamenkos – Cowboys 4-2
The Flamenkos got worried after they saw the Lions conceding 4 goals last week against the Cowboys. They decided to make a tactical change and let their strikers be defenders and their defender be strikers ! It worked and maybe will be a consideration for other teams to try it out (super 48 ??)

We are pleased to announce that the SPL made an agreement with the Shanghai Rugby and Football Club for the extra game on Sundays. They have fantastic facilities at waigaoqiao and we are really pleased that we can be part of it and use it.

Next Sunday we have a full menu 4 SPL Games !

1000-1200 Galacticos – Flamenkos

1200-1400 Pistolera Bulls – Japan

1400-1600 Super 48 – Lions

1700-1900 Hard Days Night – Hawks (At Century Park)

Enjoy Life Enjoy the SPL !

Cheers Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee

PS by all means no smoking allowed on the field !

Amigo’s and Amiga’s,
 
Welcome back to everybody ! I have never seen so many happy faces last Sunday. Partly due to the fantastic October weather and partly because everybody was ready to play the game they love the most ! We had 4 games and one of them was played in the early evening at century park in the end we counted 30 goals in 4 games !! Pure entertainment there are no boring games in the SPL !
 
Lions – Cowboys 7-4
Our new friends didn’t come by horse but 10 minutes in the game they found themselves trailing 3-0. However the Cowboys showed a fighting spirit and the Lions thought it was Christmas already giving away presents. Suddenly it was 4-3 and time for the Lions to step up and that’s what they did. Joel scored 5 and lead the SPL top scorers list. Compliment to the Cowboys who managed to score 4 goals against the Lions and had a card free game !
 
Flamenkos – Super 48 3-0
Super 48 are getting more serious every year and now they are video taping  all their game and analyse their mistakes during the week. Flamenkos counted 3200 chances but the first half was 0-0 ! Second half our “Fair Play Team" of last season suddenly saw Red and got a player sent off. This broke the ice and Flamenkos got three goals and three points.
 
Hawks – Galacticos 6-3
Don’t know how Andrea managed his team as there were about 25 new players showing up in his team maybe that’s the reason why at half time it was 1-1. Second half the Galacticos ran out of steam against the fresh legs and conceded 4 goals in a span of 10 minutes. On a positive note they got two goals at the very end of the game which showed the “never give up mentality” of the Galacticos, one of them scored by Danielle !
 
Pistolera Bulls – ERS 3-3
 
Great game between two old rivals ! The French boosted by their rugby team performance was taking the initiative from the start. Two goals looked like a comfortable lead going into half time and they even managed to score one more 3-0. The problem is that for the Pistolera Bulls you don’t want to rage them as their trade mark is to come back into a game which looked like a “game over” ! They got their equalizer in the 88 minutes so no winner except the spectators of course !!
 
Next Sunday we have a full menu again 4 games and weather outlook is good ! Lets see how Japan and Hard Day’s Night will make their debut in the new season !
 
1000 AM ERS – Lions
 
1200 PM Pistolera Bulls – Hawks
 
1400 PM Hard Days Night – Japan
 
1700 PM Cowboys – Flamenkos (at Century Park Pitch)
 
Enjoy every single moment of being part of the SPL ! Check out the team pages on our website as Frederik did a great job to make them alive !
 
Cheers Freek SPL President on behalf of the SPL Committee 

Shanghai premier league to open with a BANG!
October 16 the SPL 2011-2012 season starts.
And at the same day our favorite restaurant Latina holds Brazil Festival!

Amigo’s and Amiga’s,

What a great day we had to end our SPL season 2010/2011 !
The night before Shanghai got hit by a Typhoon but that was just what we needed to clear the air. It was the end of the plum rains and the start of a beautiful day.

In the early morning we had the SPL Cup Final between the Hawks and the Lions. Kevin had brought in an excellent lady lines lady from the Chinese FA in order to practice in senior games. We will continue next season to cooperate with the CFA to bring in  more young and promising referees/lines men to practice in our games. The Cup final was a fantastic game between two teams at their best. Hawks with the SIFL top scorer and the SPL top scorer in their team were supposed to attack from the start however the Lions found a hole in the sleeping defense. A few minutes later the Hawks equalized with a low strike by Adam. Lions opted for the counter attack in the second half and that’s just how they scored 2-1 with 10 minutes to go. The Hawks never gave up and in the very last minute they took advantage of a poor goal kick by the Lions right in the feet of Romilson who happily scored !
Penalties were back again…….!
All Lions scored (5) and All Brasilians scored (4) unfortunately for the Hawks a non Brasilian player hit the post !

Fantastic game of football and great refereed by Kevin and his lines-man + lady !

After the final we held our end of the season 8-aside tournament. Three pitches and all the SPL teams in action great to watch and the all the teams were playing in a friendly atmosphere.  Both the Lions and the Hawks struggled to make it to the end after the Cup Final but the others were battling it out as if it was the World Cup ! The Pistolera Bulls were the overall winners and played some great attacking football ! Congratulations to them ! Their Cup is on the way !

After the hard work it was time to relax and party at Latina’s. All teams could sit outside and enjoy the nice summer weather and the Brasilian music from the Hawks players. For sure one of the high-light’s of the evening was the big splash we heard when the referees were asked  to step forward to collect their awards. One of our local referees fell flat into the fish pond next to the stage, luckily he was not injured ! 

It was the time to say thank you to everybody who has helped to make this SPL season one of the best ever ! First of all the Captains who collected a special SPL Poster on canvas, the Referee’s, Sponsors, Angela, Cai and All the  SPL Players, Golden Bridge Company and Dulwich College,  Frederik, Yamada-san, Adam the Gras-Master, Family and Friends !

We wish everybody a great summer and please stay fit and healthy !
As the 2011/2012 SPL Season will be better and stronger !

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

note from webmaster:
Obviously none of this would be possible without Freek, so Viva El Presidente! and thanks a million, because it was a great season.

SHANGHAI PREMIER LEAGUE: put the fun in football !