Beauty will save the world. Or rather FDs will?
So many days like this would be classified as gloomy, was it not for the ritual taking place every Saturday at 20am in KG officiated this time by 14 players eager to get an adrenaline filled start to the weekend.
There was no shortage of it as a game that at one stage looked beyond contention went to the wire with only a dramatic golden goal separating the belligerent teams. Once again the algorithm knew it better as it put together two teams whose early imbalance flattered one side only to deceive them in the end.
Paride, Hannes, Thomas, Julien, Adam, Diego and Roberto donned the yellow vests and looked formidable, other than elegant (see Francesco’s pic) as a stand-alone team.
Shame that opposite them there was a fearless squad made by the Italian core with Giancarlo, Federico, Marco, Francesco complemented by Khaled, Philipp and in goal Tony L, ‘the wall’. Whenever he invariably saved the ball fans chanted ‘just another brick in the wall’.
The Unbibbed had skills in spade that the abundant mud on the pitch did nothing to prevent them from combining a fast and text-book one touch football.
Giancarlo sent an early warning hitting the outside post from the distance and soon after opened the family tales book by sending Marco in front of goal after a double one-two in no space along a straight vertical line that left no option to the opposition other than watching Marco finalising the mesmerising move with a fine touch. It was a goal that only a standing ovation would have been fit to celebrate. In fact fans of both sides duly obliged. Put simply, a case of beauty uniting people. Someone one day might well borrow this line, twist it a bit and quip ‘Beauty will save the world’. A deja vu for Football Dads!
Marco again, Francesco and Giancarlo seized the momentum and added misery to the Bibbed defence bringing the score to 4-1 as on the opposite side Diego managed to put one behind Tony L who looked unbeatable till then. At this point a change in the Bibbed ranks was badly needed: Hannes took a hard look at the bench but no one was there. Hardly disheartened he produced a tactical move that paid instant dividend. Defence looked more solid with Adam in the back while Roberto advanced to the attack and proved a constant thorn in the Unbibbed defence which looked rock solid that far.
Little by little the Bibbed moved up the pitch their centre of gravity and carved into the Unbibbed confidence as a drop does with a rock, with relentless and incessant attacks one of which was terminated again by Diego.
At 2-4 there was still work to be done for the Unbibbed who deployed every resource in the Unbibbed box including keeper Paride who, disguising himself behind a red top, confused opposition and scored emphatically. Since the ball crossed the line the Unbibbed lawyers have been working non stop to get the game invalidated, should it have turned into an unfavourable outcome.
The Bibbed smelt blood and went for the jugulars: Thomas thought hard where his compatriot Gerd Muller would had placed himself in the next attack and naturally the ball was attracted by him for an opportunistic low shot that sealed the most unlikely draw: 4-4.
The Unbibbed then showed that they had pride other than class and catapulted themselves into the Bibbed half. Giancarlo was twice denied by Paride limbs who made opposition resigned to the idea that anything thrown at him would have bounced back regardless.
What instead did not bounce back was a shot on the opposite front by Roberto as deadly as it was. It was a bitter taste for the Unbibbed perhaps undeserved but then in life you don’t always get what you deserve. So the losers say.
The two keepers and the two Castellis stood out throughout the game but the Man of the Match went the ‘El Capitan’ way as being the one who sealed a glorious comeback against a team that would have thwarted any other opposition on the day.
In the picture below, in white shirt (before and after the match): Francesco, Marco and Federico show once again how Italian innate elegance remains intact despite having to play in muddy pitches
