Season 40

[July Fourth]

THIS IS IT... JUDGEMENT DAY... MOMENT OF TRUTH...

Our Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd leg is here... It's either do or die for July Fourth. The question is... are we good enough to turn it around?

The starting line-up and formation is all set and we are ready to go.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINAL 2ND LEG

Equimetal SAD 0-3 July Fourth

July Fourth Win 3-1 On Aggregate
Equimetal SAD 106.9 4-3W-1-2 - July Fourth 112.9 4-5-1 V-Style

This is got to be July Fourth's best performance this season and when we needed it too... Our opponents brought their power support for the second leg but this didn't stop July Fourth receiving the same amount of possession in the first leg, but both teams had chances to score but it was July Fourths quality and defensive play as well as taking their chances this time around. July Fourth started the game with strong intent from the word go as they were the team needed to score to get back in the tie... Michu threatened early but the defence stood firm but it was until O'Sullivans run in the clear on 19 minutes after he setup McNamara to fire us level on aggregate. Ivor Hardy had a couple of chances to put us ahead from a free-kick twice but once put it over and once hit the wall. Emenike and Lampard tried to play it past our defence late on for Equimetal but Aued and Adams stood firm. We were happy to be level at half-time and you could sense this was slowly turning back our way.

The second half saw both sides create an early chance with Norris shot blocked for July Fourth and Fernandes pass cut out by Adams, Next Mensah created an opening for Michu and he put it wide... Then Mensah's leg gave way and we had to put on Kareski, that was our only substitution of the night. Kareski almost scored for us with his first touch but his shot was turned over the bar by the keeper for a corner... Michu crossed in... The referee blew the whistle... Deliberate handball!!! Wes Sneijder Sent-Off!!! Penalty to July Fourth!!!.... BIG PROBLEM??? Papaleo is on the bench and can't take it BUT Michu is too good and smashes us up and that was a killer goal from the home team because all of a sudden they need to score twice with 10 men. Equimetal threw the kitchen sink at us now, they were the better team once again despite being down to 10 men and they were winning corners and free-kicks all of a sudden but every time they created something, it was Aued or Adams that cleared it, The came close to scoring on 83 minutes when Smetanin's cross found Emenike but a crucial challenge from Aued saw off the danger, Then a minute later a Kareski pass then found Hogan who hit it into the roof of the net and July Fourth were celebrating a great victory!!!

Goals: L.McNamara (19) Michu (58 PEN) Hogan (84) MOTM: Aued.
S/O: Sneijder (58)

Injury Report: Mensah OUT for 4 days... we can live with that. Plus Kareski did a great job in cover.
Suspension News: Norris is OUT for the first leg of the semi-final since he picked up a second yellow card this eveing.

Other results: Well we weren't the only one's to turn it around in our quarter-final draw as 2 other teams also turned it around. LIVERPOON FT won 4-2 against crvena zvezda (4-3 on agg), veritas won 3-0 against chonburi kfc after losing the first leg 2-0 (3-2 on agg), Only JONCLAB held onto their 3-0 first leg lead by drawing 3-3 this evening (6-3 on agg).

This means the semi-finals are:
JONCLAB vs July Fourth
veritas vs LIVERPOON FT

All of a sudden it's now very likely we are going to get that July Fourth vs LIVERPOON FT final as predicted at the start of the competition. It also means that July Fourth would now play JONCLAB 4 times this season as JONCLAB play in our league, Yesterday July Fourth beat JONCLAB 5-0 at home and 2 weeks ago July Fourth beat JONCLAB 6-0 in the away fixture. JONCLAB must already be fearing the worst, but this is the Champions League and everything starts from 0-0 again.

Since July Fourth won this quarter-final well in the end, The board seem a bit silly for the meeting over if we went out, but we are professional in what we do and everything possible MUST be considered.

With this performance, the pundits now must be assessing if the young July Fourth AMC Hatsune Miku is rather over-rated.