Our first game in the newly renamed Taiwan Premier Football League was held in Kaoshiung and we were facing a strong Taichung Sport Uni side. We started with a 352 formation with Adam Lupinski in goal, Adrian Espinal, Oliver Gerbig and Sebastian Gruhle in center of the defense, Danny Weir and Yuichiro Mitsuoshi on the wings, Elias Argueta, Hank Lee and captain Michael O’Gorman in the center midfield and on top of it two striker, Loal Perron and Javi Funes.
TSU started to push from begin and the Blues were quickly forced to play a rather defensive 532 formation, with occasionally counter attacks.
After 15 minutes Blues' formation got better, the pressure from NTU less and most of the action happened in middle of the pitch, without any danger to both goals.
We had to wait to the last minutes of the first half to see a shot on target from NTU, which landed straight in hands of Adam Lupinski and to the 45th minute to a side bicycle kick by Elias, which missed the target. Halftime result 0:0
In the second half, the Blues manager decided to change the formation to 451, bringing a fresh striker Bhekumuzi Mathunja for Javi Funes, Atsushi Yanagisawa for Yuichiro Misumi and William Lopez for Hank Lee. This resulted with more pressing from the Blues side, Taiti players seemed to have problem to adjust to new Blues tactics.
One of the long balls almost reached Bheky but TSU goalkeeper cleared with his hands, which looked pretty close to being a handball outside the box. On the other side Adam Lupinski saved with his fingers a shot from 22 yards.
In the 67th minute then, big celebration in the Blues team, after Adrian Espinal headed a corner from Luis Ricci into the back of the net – 1:0 for the Blues. TSU team being punished for not having a player on the posts during a corner.
In the 70th minute Loal Perron started to having cramps and since the Blues used all the possible substitutes, they had to play with 10 players. Perron came back on the pitch later, though more as a dummy, to confuse the opposition defense as he was not able to run but still won some balls.
From then on, the Blues limited their game to defending. It almost paid off, but only almost - Lee Wei Xin equalized for TSU in the 93rd minute - really bitter pill for the Blues to swallow.
But it seemed the pill was swallowed by the TSU team - they became very aggressive and nasty, there were two ugly fouls in the last minute on the same player, one of them should be awarded with a red card but the referee had a different opinion on it.
1:1 is a deserved result but a little bit harsh when the equalized is conceded in the 93rd minute.
Our next game is in Taipei, at the Fujen University pitch on Wednesday, 3 PM kick off. Welcome to come and support the Blues if by any chance, you are a millionaire and don’t need to work at this time.
Link to the who game and highlights:
https://mycujoo.tv/ch/280?id=3449
TSU started to push from begin and the Blues were quickly forced to play a rather defensive 532 formation, with occasionally counter attacks.
After 15 minutes Blues' formation got better, the pressure from NTU less and most of the action happened in middle of the pitch, without any danger to both goals.
We had to wait to the last minutes of the first half to see a shot on target from NTU, which landed straight in hands of Adam Lupinski and to the 45th minute to a side bicycle kick by Elias, which missed the target. Halftime result 0:0
In the second half, the Blues manager decided to change the formation to 451, bringing a fresh striker Bhekumuzi Mathunja for Javi Funes, Atsushi Yanagisawa for Yuichiro Misumi and William Lopez for Hank Lee. This resulted with more pressing from the Blues side, Taiti players seemed to have problem to adjust to new Blues tactics.
One of the long balls almost reached Bheky but TSU goalkeeper cleared with his hands, which looked pretty close to being a handball outside the box. On the other side Adam Lupinski saved with his fingers a shot from 22 yards.
In the 67th minute then, big celebration in the Blues team, after Adrian Espinal headed a corner from Luis Ricci into the back of the net – 1:0 for the Blues. TSU team being punished for not having a player on the posts during a corner.
In the 70th minute Loal Perron started to having cramps and since the Blues used all the possible substitutes, they had to play with 10 players. Perron came back on the pitch later, though more as a dummy, to confuse the opposition defense as he was not able to run but still won some balls.
From then on, the Blues limited their game to defending. It almost paid off, but only almost - Lee Wei Xin equalized for TSU in the 93rd minute - really bitter pill for the Blues to swallow.
But it seemed the pill was swallowed by the TSU team - they became very aggressive and nasty, there were two ugly fouls in the last minute on the same player, one of them should be awarded with a red card but the referee had a different opinion on it.
1:1 is a deserved result but a little bit harsh when the equalized is conceded in the 93rd minute.
Our next game is in Taipei, at the Fujen University pitch on Wednesday, 3 PM kick off. Welcome to come and support the Blues if by any chance, you are a millionaire and don’t need to work at this time.
Link to the who game and highlights:
https://mycujoo.tv/ch/280?id=3449