The City Lions Kicked off their 2021 Spring season with the second round of the US National Cup versus Hayward Wolfpack FC at the Club’s home Stadium in Osseo Minnesota.
The City Lions Head Coach Oluwalaanu David in his famous 4:3:3 formation, had Aaron Williams in between the posts, Nalikem Fayose, and Christopher Aparicio as Center backs, and Austin Peterson and Emmanuel Morris as Right and Left backs respectively.
In the middle field, Luis Rodriguez, and Adil Abdirahman played the defensive roles while Uganda’s Sendi Ian was given the free role, but mainly pulling his strings from the CAM position.
Upfront, Leviticus Dunlap, and Victoriano Duque attacked from the flanks as Marlon Jorge took to the central offense.
The game kicked off very much in the balance with the Wisconsin visitors looking solid, and the City Lions seemingly determined to defend their unbeaten home record since 2019, but that was soon to change when Hayward’s Kaden Bergman picked up a long ball from his defense and squared it passed Aaron Williams to give them an early 0-1 lead in the first half.
The City Lions were able to find an equalizer when Sendi Ian picked up Marlon Jorge with a sharp through ball who made the most of it and scored beautifully to bring the evening’s affairs back in the balance.
That balance was not going to hold for long though and this time leaning more towards the City Lions’ side! Leviticus Dunlap was able to pick up Jorge with a square pass which he calmly placed to the right to give the home team a 2-1 lead. Shortly after, the City Lions again scored a third by Victoriano Duque who perfectly controlled Adil Abdirahman’s long ball before chipping it past the opponents’ keeper to give his side a comfortable lead by halftime.
In the second half, FC Minneapolis was able to score four more goals from Marlon Jorge, Aaron Takan, and Ariel Gbalenchey (2) to end the game 7-1 in favor of the City Lions.
FC Minneapolis qualified for the quater finals of the National Cup and will be traveling to Vlora FC for a midweek game on Thursday May 13th, 8:00 pm CST to fight for the semi final spot.
