A new goalkeeping star is born as Bijan swaps side and turns the game leading Colours to a comprehensive victory
Football Gods finally listened to FDs’ plea for a new goalkeeper and sent one in the disguised person of Kaan. In fact in his previous game the Turkish, who brought the 73rd Nation to the CLUB, played as a valiant midfielder while the two goals were covered by the well established Paride and Alessandro, impossible to be displaced as much as missing in action Tony L.
It was not a full house but it was a full game.
Today, in absence of any role guardian, Kaan ended up in the Orange goal as a rush keeper and stayed there by public acclamation thereafter. Perhaps he is still there for selfies and autographs. It was a baptism of fire as colours’ strikers bombarded the Orange goal incessantly and the relatively low number of players (six a side) favoured a rich tally with fans on the stands spoiled for choice when deciding about the goal of the match.
To the superficial observer a 10-5 defeat would not spell glory for any member of the defeated defence, let alone the goalkeeper, but in fact it did indeed. Without Kaan in goal the scoreline would have assumed biblical proportion. He displayed a full array of skills to deny multiple times the eager Colours’ strikers with Diego F, Oliviero and Bijan running riot in the Orange defence where stoically Hossam was last bastion and never the one to surrender.
The game started well for the Orange: Federico, who was the star of the show last week, effectively gifted them the first goal and looked a distant player from just last time. Dads, from the wisdom of their experience, keep warning Kids day in, day out to stay grounded as it is very easy at such young age to give in to fame, glamour, success and money that naturally come with the territory of being a FK. We trust this is just a one off distraction from the young gifted Italian and expect of him a 24/7 focus for the next game.
The CLUB tolerates mistakes as long as they are not repeated (‘errare humanum, perseverare diabolicum’ is an old enough yet always validmquote) and a player ousted by FDs would simply not have a market anymore. He would literally not touch the ball anymore. Such is life in the FKs fast lane: why in any other team victory brings joy, at FDs and FKs it only bring relief as nothing less is expected of them.
Boosted by Federico’s rare mistake, Colours went to extend the lead fairly comfortably with goals by Adam and a supreme solo effort by Dario who danced his way to Colours’ goal while Ross and Francesco mostly operated from the flanks to facilitate Orange raids. Adam scored yet again a hat trick despite being on the losing side. He has now consistently averaged 2.5 goals per game. Why does not Pep Guardiola buy Adam and sell Haaland who only averages less than half of what Adam does? Well, there are financial implication: by selling Haarland Man City would only raise a fraction of the money needed to buy Adam and their creative accounting and leveraged balance sheet is already being questioned in high places. Besides the FDs striker is simply not for sale.
At that point the game looked like a one way traffic: Orange’s dominant position, leaning on monopolism, soon attracted the interest of the regulator who ordered a balancing swap. Bijian gave the Orange bib to Giancarlo, pretty much a spectator till then, and took on the Colours’ shirt, effectively turning the game from then on.
Also his new team mates rose to the occasion: Oliviero, back after few weeks absence, was bringing mobility and acceleration to the Colours’ attacks. Initially the volume of his work was penalised by a lack of accuracy in the finalisation but as soon as his aiming was finetuned the team was back in the game and quickly overtook Orange thanks to a hat trick by Diego F. The man from Avellino had another inspired match alternating goals and assists for the delight of the fans in the stands raising bipartisan approval. Julien as well was not happy to just watch his colleagues and, for good measure, guaranteed his customary solid performance with goals attached.
Bijan ended up scoring an unprecedented hat trick: other than his stellar individual performance that saw him dominating any area on the pitch, he was tactically a free man able to roam in attack thanks to the defensive coverage provided by the ever reliable Massimo. At this point, with the score at 8-4 for the Colours, only the golden goal could could have brought dignity back within the Colours’ camp. And it did, if any too quickly, courtesy a goal from Ross who hardly has a dry match.
The love of the game betrayed Orange who accepted to extend it and would soon regret it as Colours equalised soon after and went to win the third and final golden goal scored by Julien fixing the very final score at 10-5.
It was a confrontation hardly in contention, initially dominated by Orange and then after the swap by Colours. What the match lacked in unpredictability it gained in very entertaining individual pieces of skill aby a wide number of virtuosos who made the whole orchestra producing a superior performance much to the satisfaction of the crowd who has started demanding more metal as a single golden goal does not see any longer enough to satisfy them. Perhaps this alone explains the rise in gold price…
The Man who tried to spoil the Colours’ party, that is the new goalkeeper Kaan, was inevitably a favourite for the Man of the Match award and voters were not shy in recognising that. Yet that was not enough to turn the game and win the trophy. Who instead did the trick was Bijan: while quitting the Orange team he could well have creditably stated ‘apres moi le deluge’ while echoing Julius Caesar when joining Colours with ‘veni, vidi, vici’. Curiously JC said that after winning a battle in Turkey (then Asia Minor) while today Bijan had to to deal with the Turkish wall erected by
Kaan. Who said history does not repeat itself?
COLOURS-ORANGE 10-5
GOALS
COLOURS: Diego (3), Bijan (3), Oliviero (2), Julien (2)
ORANGE: Adam (3), Ross, Dario
TEAMS
COLOURS: Massimo Federico T, Julien, Giancarlo (Bijan), Diego, Oliviero
ORANGE: Kaan, Hossam, Bijan (Giancarlo), Adam, Ross, Francesco