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We are heading to Russia to face Zenit in the first leg of our match. Alright, here we go. I begin defensive. Pick up where you left off! We begin pushing the match in our favor. Skolnik crosses to Defederico on a break away and we score in the first 10 minutes. Then they push back hard and come after us. We survive an onslaught for another 20 minutes or so before things die down and its half time. Keep it up! As the 2nd half gets underway, again, Zenit has a major push. But then Rondon finds Djaniny on a nice pass and DJ grabs us a goal in the 59th minute. We are up 2-0. At this point, about 60 minute is, they have 16 shots, just 7 on target, we have 7 shots, 6 on target, so we’ve been careful with 50% fewer shots, but made them count. I tell my guys to begin tackling and marking hard. I want ot push them off the ball. Marc intercepts a pass, beginning an offensive move, gets the ball and feeds Defederico in a dangerous position. Matias runs at goal, but has two defenders in his face, and slides it to Rondon who scores in the 64th minute. Because we’ve been playing defensive ball all game, no one is tired. But they are. They have a striker named Rondon too, so it’s been a bit confusing. I still expect this game to end something like 3-2. Until Luis Martins intercepts the ball on the left has, finds Skolnik, who runs into the corner, crosses, finds Matias again for another score. I make a pair of subs – in go Costa and Rodrigues. Daniel C grabs a yellow. I slide back from my harder tackling. I don’t think they’ll score 4 goals in 14 minutes. Although Maritimo almost did. I pull him out for Javi Espinosa. They score in the 80th. As expected. They were banging all night long. We win, MOM is Matias Defederico, obviously. We got that win. That was really special lads! That was the sort of game that restores my faith in this team!
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