An eventful day saw the Deadly Dolphins change venues for their match as fans ran riot after the announcement that regulation football cleats were not allowed on the pitch for unknown reasons. After hearing of the news, spectators ran onto the pitch and set the stadium to flames as it was revealed that the Deadly Dolphins did not receive the news before hand and were forced to play with bare feet. The avid Dolphin fans would not allow the match to begin, and as a result the scheduled match was canceled and a friendly was organised with a change of venue to James Oval. Unfortunately, the Dolphins were still unable to wear their boots.
Despite the disadvantage, the side went in confident in their friendly against regular UW A-League outfit; Croasia Zagreb, naming Reynard Chan, Edmond Tang, Mohammed Bukhary, new signings: Heram Halim and Keane Ferreira da Rosa Pereira Leite to start the match and injured midfielder Jim Ly on the bench. The friendly match provided as opportunity for the new look club to experiment with their unique "Total Football" tactics also utilised by Johan Cryuff and the great 1970's Dutch team. Their adventurous style of play incorporates complete creative freedom where positions for the squad are not set and players would have to call upon tremendous individual versatility. The league hopefuls started the game shakily as surprise package Croasia Zagreb took the early lead in the first half with a lack luster Deadly Dolphins trailing at half time. However, the Dolphins came out of the half time break a different side with some inspirational words from team captain Reynard Chan who lead from the front when his constant pressure on the opposition backline created a opening in which Chan cooly slotted the ball home for the equaliser.
Chan also had a hand in the second goal as his defense splitting pass met Jim Ly on the wing who made a perfectly timed run to keep the offside flag down. A trademark finish was applied by Ly who guided the ball past the keeper to put the Dolphins infront. However, a brief lack of concentration allowed Croasia Zagreb to grab an equaliser in injury time.
The Dolphins will find themselves disappointed with the result as their dominance in the second half was not enough to grab them a moral boosting win. However, in a post match interview, the captain expressed his satisfaction with the result explaining that "Every team needs time to glue and this was our only first match together. Plus, Jim came on the field today for only 10 minutes today and scored a goal. With him getting back to full fitness, our performances can only get better."
Although the team's overall play did not impress their critics, experts could not find the superlatives to describe new signing Keane Ferreira da Rosa Pereira Leite - otherwise known as Keane. He looked unbeatable at the heart of the Deadly Dolphin's defense and the team will certainly go into next week's match more confident knowing that their backline is in safe hands.
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