The City Lions’ Head Coach James Oluranti started off his second preseason campaign with a mixture of some of his regulars and new faces carefully arranged in the club’s favorite setup –The 4:3:3.
In the goalposts, Nigeria’s Gafar Ayodele took charge while Delkie Williams and Asaad Moktar took to the Center Back Positions. Amoah Kwaku and Phillip Worzie manned the Full Backs in both the right and left Respectively.
Holding in the middle was Zuma Kuyateh while Adil Abdirahman and Ian Sendi played in the attacking midfield as box to box players.
Up top was Liberia’s Emmanuel Togar, who was supported by both James Brent and David Diawara in the full forward flanks.
Hardly had the game registered 10 minutes on the time board when Mande FC found the back of the net following Worzie’s poor throw in that saw the City Lions defense overwhelmed by Mande’s Barclay who scored neatly past Minneapolis’ Gafar to give them a 0-1 lead to the end of the first half.
FC Minneapolis had two chances to equalize in the first half but Zuma’s free-kick hit the crossbar and Sendi’s shot was deflected out by the right post when he tried to score from Adil’s layoff.
On returning to the second half, the City Lions looked more composed and organized, creating chances and attacking relentlessly, and soon that effort would yield results.
Given the chance, Ian Sendi pulled his strings from the middle and picked up Emmanuel Togar with a swift through ball that beat 3 of Mande’s defenders and found its self on the striker’s dominant foot before he could strike beautifully to square the game in the first 5 minutes of the second half.
In the 16th minute of the same half, Emmanuel Togar also returned the favor by setting up Diawara who scored to give the City Lions a 2-1 lead before Mohammed Hussein could come in for Diawara and scoring a third from James Brent’s cross in the last quarter of the half.
FC Minneapolis now looked very much in control of the game with excellent game build-up from the defense, through the midfield and all the way to the forwards, and another goal was inevitable so when Zuma found the space, he found Sikuru with a well-balanced pass who scored the fourth to give City Lions a 4-1 lead by full time.
FC Minneapolis will be returning to Preseason action on March 13th against Turbo Sports at the Park Center as they continue their preparations for the upcoming season of the United Premier Soccer League.
James Oluranti, the Club’s Head coach believes his side has what it takes to compete this year and he is excited to see his players give their best efforts during the preseason.
Speaking of his experience, Ian Sendi said that, “leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. if you are in control, they are in control.”
