A spell was broken yesterday after a long history of the Stalwarts being firmly built against the Exypnos team. The game which was the last and the highlight of the Second week of the IFUMSA league 2.0 saw the end of an era, as Stalwarts’ era was sent on an errand. A comeback? For now, no one knows.
The game started about forty minutes late due to some technical issues. However, the match began with a signature of an impending win registered on the Stalwarts’ faces. Time told a really different story when Toluwani, Exypnos’s striker fired a thunderous shot into the net of the Stalwarts. The ball conquered the net and returned, only for it to hearken to the call of Toluwani’s foot for the second time in five minutes. However, this time, from a corner.
Toluwani on Exypnos’s win: I feel good about it. It was a match many of us looked forward to. Exypnos Vs Stalwarts has always been a high energy and entertaining match, and sadly in past meetings we’ve always been very unlucky with results. Thankfully it was different this time. We won and we’re top of the league. Our Focus is on the next league game.
Successive penalties
Going further, both sides received a penalty each in the first half. The sound of Bata filled the pitch as Tolu spit fire, in lieu of a ball to register Exypnos’s third goal with the awarded penalty. Stalwarts basically lost theirs, courtesy of Paulo, aka the Wall. The solid Stalwarts became severely shattered and destabilized after receiving three bullets from the Exypnos’s team. Sadly, all efforts of recoil from the Stalwarts’ end, ended in ‘attempts’.
Toluwani on how Exypnos can do better: There’s always a room for improvement. In the IFL, my coach has been using me in a more advanced role, I’ve been playing more or less as a striker/ Supporting striker role as opposed to my usual No.10 role. This has afforded me more goal-scoring opportunities. So, definitely, I feel I should be scoring more for the team. In essence, my teammates are doing very well. We haven’t conceded any goal even after playing the two most dangerous team in the competition (In my opinion). We just need to keep up the spirit and the energy, we’ll win the league with that.
The focus is the same, We have to win all of our matches, Every match is a final and we cannot underestimate any team in the competition. We’ll play the next match with the same commitment and energy and hope to get a good result against them.
The second half
The second half was essentially a fight of bulls, a fierce battle, and locking of horns. The Stalwarts brought everything against the wall-Exypnos’s keeper, but the Wall deflected, reflected, and rebounded all. The second half ended with a goal drought, however, Tolu’s hatrick, sealed Exypnos’s win a half earlier.
A clear definition of IFUMSA’s classic! Stalwarts brought everything, but lost to a long time adversary who brought no history of win against Stalwarts. A king dethroned! Time will tell if the new king would be wise enough to retain his crown.
We reached out to the Captain of the Stalwarts team, Fakz and he had this to say
“It was quite an unfortunate match. We gave our best. But we were just unlucky in my opinion.
We were not adequately prepared and I think that affected our performance.
For the next match, there no plan for revenge, we’ll just go out there and do what we normally do- win.
We hope to see a much improved effort from the whole team.”
One thing is sure. The league is only going to get more interesting. Stick with us for more reports on the league games.
Leave a Reply