Back to the old days

It was a full house on the pitch with 21 players: back to the old days! Such crowded day was matched on the stands where the Health&Safety authority had to waive for safety reasons  social distancing rules to avoid a stampede to the few seats available. All the ingredients for a glorious game which in fact lived up to the hype.

The formations saw on the Unbibbed side the Kids who were back in force sending an uncompromising ​message to the Dads ahead of the MG6.

It was both a joy and a worry to see players like Adam G and George growing immensely in stature and confidence: they can now get rid of the man and is very difficult to dispossess them. Sara was her usual self but opted to play in a more defensive role excelling in it as well along with Riccardo who was last man standing.  Johannes, the two Khaled and Hossam in goal provided the leadership required to turn this young team into a war machine.

The Bibbed, who started the match one man down were very conscious of the gravity of the task before them.
Giancarlo decided to play lone striker, a role typically  filled by Tony S who unfortunately will be out of action for sometime owing to an incident in Italy.  He is one of those few players you can only deputise for but never truly and fully replace.

The game was very balanced and would have been so for longer had Johannes and Khaled A not produced a piece of magic: Johannes chipped a lovely ball in the heart of the Bibbed box for Khaled to volley it in with power and precision in the top corner. This is the kind of combination that you might see if you are lucky from Messi and Suarez on a good day. Before the Bibbed could even think of a reaction they were hit again, this time from a long distance shot by Marco.

It was a big blow but the Bibbed were in no mood to give up and courtesy Jamal they were back in the game after a while.As the Bibbed pushed for the draw, they inevitably exposed themselves to the Unbibbed counters, one of which was superbly finalised by Marco with yet again a long distance shot who raised the roof of the net. Not even a keeper like Tony L could oppose it such was the speed and precision.

With the score at 3-1 for the Unbibbed, owing to a glitch of the algorithm assembling the teams, the Bibbed found themselves two men down: it was then decided that Francesco swap side joining the Bibbed. It was a move that changed the game as it allowed them to adopt an aggressive 3-4-3 system with a three men pronged attach with Giancarlo, Francesco and Jamal, supported by a rocky midfield with Ben, Yasin, Diego  and Julien which could naturally defend and counter while defence was patrolled by only two men, Hannes and Hadrien who played like were four, erecting a wall than from then on it was not be violated with Tony L shutting the goal by saving anything thrown at him.

At that point also Yasin, yet again, rose to the occasion taking  the game in his own feet by scoring a brace that levelled the match and sent it to the golden goal. So tight were the teams that it took no less than 25 minutes to end the deadlock when Julien inflated the Unbibbed net with a powerful shot just outside the box with the clock ticking midday.

There were many players deserving the Man of the Match accolade: Adam G, Marco and George along with household names like Yasin, Johannes and Khaled A but each and everyone of the Kids did not put a foot wrong showing a maturity and determination only found in top senior players and it was only appropriate to hand the trophy to each of them

TEAMS
Bibbed:
Tony L, Hadrien, Hannes, Julien, Ben, Diego,  Yasin, Giancarlo, Francesco, Jamal
Unbibbed:
Hossam, Riccardo, Sara, Johannes, Adam G, Adam B, George, Khaled A, Khaled Alg,  Nima

GOALS
Bibbed: Yasin (2), Jamal, Julien
Unbibbed: Khaled A, Marco (2)