All-Italians team fights until the end under the foliage
While bringing havoc to the rest of the country, Storm Ciaran had been relatively gentle on Hyde Park. The only sign of its passage were thousands of colourful leaves on the ground, creating a wonderful early Autumn setting for the 14 players that answered the call.
As exactly half of them were Italians, it was quickly decided to assemble an Azzurri team. Paride in goal, Massimo and Federico F (back after a long absence) in defense, Andrea “Puskas” in midfield and Francesco in attack flanked by youngster Giacomo and Diego.
Not a bad line-up at all, but would they be able to deliver? In the recent past, all-Italian FD squads struggled to be competitive, a testament to the international flair of our Club. Besides, the other (Orange) team, built around a strong German core (Johannes, Thomas, Tom) plus Julien, Chetan, Bijan and Nizar, looked like a formidable opponent and didn’t waste time in establishing their superiority. Within the first 20 minutes, they had already scored twice.
The Italians had managed to get past the impeccable Colours’s defense in a couple of occasions but all their shots had missed the goal, going high above the bar. Something was wrong. After a quick analysis of the situation, and despite not having any theoretical physicist (or any McKinsey consultant) in the team, the Italians concluded that the cause of their ballistic imprecision was the slightly deflated ball.
Armed with greater awareness, the Italians changed their style of playing and got results soon with Giacomo able to score twice, first with his right foot and then with header, while Diego scored another. However this was matched by the same number of goals by the Colours, able to retain their lead (5-3).
The match looked fairly balanced but the score didn’t lie. With about 20 minutes to go, the Italians were still two goal down.
All the stadium heard Massimo’s voice from the defense, shouting at Francesco to stay upfront and do something.
Francesco had struggled to find his form recently and had not been scoring for a month, something never happened before. Despite his determination to break his abstinence he had been unable to get past Chetan, who marked him with the elegance of Cannavaro and the badness of Gentile. Inspired by Massimo’s advice, he shifted his position and perched like a vulture in front of the Colours’ goal, waiting for the right occasions with an Inzaghi mindset.
The occasion arrived in the form of an assist from Diego: Francesco shot with confidence and put it past Johannes after a rebound. Minutes later, it was Andrea to send him a sneaky ball in the box and Francesco scored again with a tap-in.
With the score at 5-5, the match was going to be decided by the Golden Goal. Unimpressed by the Azzurri’s remuntada, the Colours continued to attack with confidence, led by an outstanding Johannes. Massimo had been able to stop him in several occasions, using all the tricks in the book, but even him could not do anything at the final moment. After one of his signature move going field-to-field with the ball on his feet, Johannes arrived on the left side of the goal line. From an impossible angle he shot with such precision and power than Paride could not much to stop it. A goal that was worth victory for the Oranges and a MOTM award for Johannes.
After the match, the Italian team stopped for a celebratory picture, quite happy with their performance. Yes, they lost, but with style. They did a “bella figura” and for them that’s all it counts!
Italians-Oranges 5-6
Italians: Francesco (2), AndreaM, Paride, Federico, Massimo, Diego (1), Giacomo (2)
Oranges: Thomas, Johannes (3), Tom, Julien, Nizar (1), Bijan (1), Chetan