Blossoming youth: Kids outnumbering Dads
The most remarkable feature of today‘s game, a relentless 9 v 9 battle, was that Kids individually outnumbered Dads by 10 to 8. That was not always the case in the 19 years long history of the CLUB apart from the very first few years when a Dad had always to be with a Kid or two not least because the little boys could not get there alone.
The teams were mixed in terms of age with the algorithms doing the Selecao careful not to put the over 60, Giancarlo and Thomas, in the same squad to give them the ‘over experience advantage’.
This youth blossoming is great news for our franchise that pride itself for continuity to last through generations. It was though bad news for Dads who had to cope with a breathtaking pace: at times even fans experienced fatigue due to the intensity of what they were witnessing, having to turn head faster than a tennis match due to the immediate and countless number of counterattacks the two teams generated. Is not a secret that in July quite a few of our spectators head to Wimbledon to relax the muscles of their neck.
Besides, one of the reason we do not employ a Referee on any given Saturday (for the MG is a FIFA imposition) is that we cannot find anyone fit enough to cope with the unreal pace. Same goes for VAR: at such a speed the machine does not guarantee absolute reliability, hence also better to drop the offside rule, much to Francesco and TonyS’ advantage.
At the starting line there were few new faces: Bijan brought in his friend Luke who strengthened the Orange contingent and went close to score in his debut. Not only Bijan has proved to be an outstanding player since joining but he is now bringing in new players as free agents which very much benefits the Net Asset Value of the CLUB. More of the same please.
Furthermore we had not only the return of our Brazilian star Victor but this time he also brought his own son Victor Jr (pictured above) who had an excellent game on the right side as a defender: one of his best qualities is an elevation that allows him to head the ball anywhere in the air dwarfing anyone around him.
Surely Jr he has home a tough benchmark: Victor Sr, though ending up on the losing side, was dominant at times like when he scored the first Orange goal taking the ball in his own half, dancing around opposition and lashing a shot from the distance that gave the keeper no option but picking the ball only in the back of the net. A solid and skilled family display.
It was also good to see Robbie, Giacomo’s friend, coming back and marking his only second appearance with a good performance, a key contributor to the Orange success.
There were all the ingredients for a great game and it is fair to say that expectations were at the very least met. The Orange had a start that you hardly see in Formula One: Nizard was literally on fire 🔥 proving to be too hot to handle by the Colours defence. Giacomo and Yuv exuberance also proved lethal though it fell on the usual suspect, Yassin, to open the score with a venomous strike.
Yuv showed the fans what they have been missing: he is a bit of a Pogba in midfield who suddenly turns into a Leao when he says goodbye to his markers accelerating effortlessly to convert either solo or terminating team moves. Jointly Nizard and Yuv scored 8 goals sharing the bounty equally.
Colours tried hardly to get into the game with a couple of goals from indomitable households names like Francesco and Johannes coupled by Bijan and Victor Sr but Colours made sure they were never at touching distance.
Besides Colours had to cope with the very early exit of Thomas due to injury: his dedication to the game, this time unlucky, is such that he postponed his flight to Sicily to be able to attend the game. Such commitment was not lost on the crowd who started singing ‘you’ll never go on holiday alone’ apparently an adaptation of a popular hymn in Liverpool.
As for the Man of the Match award, Yuv and Nizard were neck to neck rivalling goal for goal to snatch it. Yuv seemed to have the upper hand until the very last second when Nizard put his name on the golden goal and managed therefore to take home the coveted prize hedging over by literally few votes. Yuv elegantly didn’t ask for a recount: many more chances await him in the future.
Little final note: the commentary is being put together each week by Giancarlo and Francesco: the latter will now be back not until mid August while Giancarlo sometime in September. It would be very nice if the commentary continues: even few lines with stats and pictures will do.
The goals, both big ones in the black bags and the white poles in the red cylinder bag, are at my place with also the bibs’ bag on top. Hossam, Paride and few others know the whereabouts. Please remember to bring the ⚽️ BALL!
You will be able to play most of the games from mid July to end August by the PALACE as schools are on holiday and the pitch is free.
Anything you need drop a WhatsApp though I’m in a different time zone in July. Enjoy! I look forward to hearing from you.
Giancarlo Castelli
COLOURS-ORANGE 10-4
GOALS
COLOURS: Nizard (4), Yuv (4), Yassin, Paride
ORANGE: Victor Sr, Johaness, Francesco, Bijan
TEAMS
COLOURS: Paride, Giancarlo, Julien, Yassin, Robbie, Christian, Yuv, Giacomo, Nizard
ORANGE: Johaness, Victor Sr, Arav, Victor Jr, Bijan, Luke, Andrea, Francesco, Thomas, Al