Better than Down Under
The day in London started with a drizzle. The sky was grey. This must be hard to imagine for our Mediterranean friends who have comprehensively abandoned London in this crazy Summer. But the London sky cleared, in time for a most entertaining football encounter.
As the picture shows, we had more ladies and kids playing than usual. This added even more flair and enthusiasm to the game. We counted ourselves especially lucky that Kat, Gabriela, and Heloise had chosen to ignore calls from their national teams. It was Kensington Gardens, instead of Down Under.
The backbone of the bibbed team were FD legends like Hossam, Adam, Victor, Chetan, and Nizar. They were assisted by Nizard’s daughter Alyah, and by one of Heloise and Gabriela at the time. The Colours had Johannes, Hannes, Bijan, plus Ben (who had previously played with us) with Kat from San Francisco, and Nizar’s young football prodigy sons Khalid and Ziad.
The Colours scored 3 in quick succession, to go up 3:0, with Kat and Ziad displaying calm ruthlessness in front of goal. But then the bibbed team recruited Gaspar, a boy from Portugal, and the bibbed team managed to stem the tide and balance the game, scoring twice, and posing an increasing threat. However, the Colours were able to maintain their lead, helped by some thorough defensive work, with the game going through interim scores of 5:3 and 6:4. In the end, the Colours won 8:4.
After the game we came together for a group photo. Bijan and Gaspar had already left, but we managed to capture most of today’s protagonists.
Kat and Ben had planned to tourist weekend in London, but Ben, a Londoner, was quick to conclude that “Whatever else we do this weekend, nothing beats FD football in Kensington Gardens at 10am each Saturday”. They’re reportedly contemplating a move to London.
As usual, there are many worthy contenders for the player of the match award, but the jury settled firmly on Kat, who was not only a prolific goal scorer, but also excelled in her defensive work.
Colours: Kat (3), Ben (1), Johannes (1), Hannes, Bijan, Ziad (2), Khalid (1)
Bibbed: Hossam (1), Adam (1), Nizar (2), Victor, Chetan, Alyah, Gabriela/Heloise, Gaspar