Melius abundare quam deficere. Better many than few. That was certainly the case today when a new record was broken: some 30 players(21 Kids, 9 Dads) turned up and for the first time the formula of one game with a final golden goal left the place to four 30’ games with three teams by 11 players each (the two keepers staying on) with two golden goals in succession in the last match. Inevitably the end of hostilities went well beyond the 12pm mark.
No doubt the Board will convene this weekend to answer the question :’ has success brought excess?’ and to find the most convenient solution which could well be a natural one: just wait few weeks and General Winter, which in history has stopped powerful armies, will thin the ranks of both Dads and Kids, surgically removing the fair-weather players, especially among the many rookies that have only experienced Spring and Summer football. No casualties expected on the seasoned Dads’ front.
Regardless, what is really heart-warming is the strong inflow of Rookie Kids, joining through word of mouth from existing players. That of course at the cost of diluting the impact of Dads whose number is rather declining: the silver lining is that the scarcity value of the senior players is sending their market price to the roof. Today when the likes of Hossam, Francesco, Giancarlo, Bijan, Matej, Tony L, Diego F, Alessandro and Chetan walked out of the pitch their value, not least because of their performance, had gone considerably up, to the point of making them unaffordable to other teams.
Which ties in with the CLUB philosophy to never lose players to competition.
We are not yet at the stage of Dads been treated as endangered species but pressure is mounting with the prospect of the Master Game 12 being played at the Natural History Museum…
What has surely changed for the worse is the commentators’ ability to remembers
fact and faces due to high numbers of participants and the many new ones.
The detailed info on teams and goals is postponed until a full media crew is being dispatched.
To the point, there were no less that three Jonathan on the pitch: our very J Lee, a household name from Mauritius, J Drexel from France and J Rao from Italy.
Also today we had the customary couple of Rookies in the persons of Ross, a friend of Adam B, and Eddie, an Italian from Bologna, a city that has recently been providing a constant stream of players and good ones like Jonathan and Greg, aka Calafiori.
Ross today also managed to score in the first game making the perfect debut while Eddie had a solid game patrolling the back left flank. Curiously he was wearing a shirt with ‘Rigatoni’ written on the back. This is neither his surname nor that of a famous player.
Is he sponsoring the famous pasta or else? One of the many mysteries surrounding FDs and FDs!
There were much needed comebacks on the Dads front like goalie Alessandro who showed fans what they had been missing, as well as Diego F. and Chetan.
Eddie, left, and Ross made their debut with convincing performances
Is Eddie marketing himself? If you pick him does he come with a complimentary dish of Rigatoni?
The first game was convincingly won by Colours by 3-1 with goals from Adam, Ross and an own goal forced by Francesco who also provided another assist while Julian scored the consolation goal at the other end.
There was no time for ‘remuntada’ as the 30’ flew away with the new team eager to take on the winners Colours. The latter proved again a tough nut to crack though they could only score with a penalty converted by Calafiori. Not such an easy feature as stats are there to prove.
In the third game Youness was the star of the show scoring both goal that led Bibs to a 2-0 victory
In the fourth Colours proved to be the strongest team on the day beating Bibs by 2-1 with Francesco ending a super day with a brace, making himself forgiven by fans for the missed penalty saved by yet another heroic from Tony L. This unreal keeper is not yet ready to hang his boots, not least because if he did his goal would collapse…
Giancarlo kept him busy again from the corner kicks: this time Andrea M came to the rescue heading off the line another curling shot.
The MAN of the MATCH award was a crowded proposition with probably the highest ever number of claimants: both keeper deserved the nomination for the consistent amount and quality of the saves. Youness as always combined elegance and efficiency
in midfield adding a brace to his superior performance. An unlikely contestant was Matej who did a clean job in defence and showed strong discipline and willpower handing the ball only twice which is the new self imposed cap per game, having successfully avoided the red card the game before.
Hossam and Chetan were back forming a formidable pair in protecting their keeper and starting the counters.
There were of course in the list ‘default’ names like Johannes and Greg Calafiori: you could have added them even before the match started.
But owing to a tally of four, equally divided between assists and goals, Francesco was the most voted, managing to score a double golden goal as the first one was deemed too quick and had to be put in play again. Among so many Kids the most coveted trophy went to a Dad: Dads are dead, long live the Dads!
