FDs were back to a full house after the summer break. Holidays are just a different place from where to train hard and be ready to make the most from the new season. While is true that a FD career typically spans two to three times that of a professional player, this is not a good excuse not to approach each season as a defining one and give everything right from the first match.
Fans on the stands are used to total commitment and they have no reason to doubt it for the incoming season. The first fierce exchanges of hostilities proved the theory right.
The Palace pitch was as dry as a desert but few patches of green emerged on the sides giving hope that soon that will be the prevailing colour.
The match had all the ingredients to be both thrilling and entertaining: there was the Rookie in the person of Rahnadan from Nigeria, the comeback of Tony the Terminator and the super young Raphael, Julien’s son.
Terminator Tony was back in action and in shape after a long absence.
Only one keeper showed up, Alessandro, and the Orange were fast to secure a loan to pay for his services in the knowledge that opposition would have had to rely on rotating keepers who, not only provide lower quality in goal but disrupt tactics. At a first glance Colours looked unbalanced with a crowded frontline and hardly any role defender. As Orange learned pretty soon appearances can be deceptive.
Conversely, Orange ironically were light in defence with only Hossam and Giancarlo facing the force of strikers of the calibre of Nizar, Oliviero, Tony and Francesco with Davide playing just behind them and going for every ball.
The choice of placing Bijan in attack for the Orange didn’t look obvious but his versatility justified it and in fact he was the first to score. The price to pay though was evident later as Orange defence was overwhelmed despite the hard work in midfield by Daniel and Julien to protect it.
The attack prone Colours took a big risk and exposed themselves in defence but luckily for them Orange missed many chances and such profligacy was a recurring feature throughout the match.
They always looked close to fill the gap that Colours had created, mostly by virtue of a hat trick by Johannes who was playing as a defensive midfielder but made the most out of his accurate shooting, well outside the box with that left foot of his.
Daoud scored a brace but on the other front Nizar, Francesco and Anton (capping an excellent game) made sure with their goals that an Orange Remuntada was nowhere to be seen on the day. Oddly, Oliviero was not on the scoring list but had a key role as a playmaker keeping Orange defence on constant red alert, also putting to good work his otherwise idle left foot.
Cherry on the Colours’ cake Tony marked his comeback with one of his trademark ‘what happened?’ goal: Johannes, who else?, unleashed one of his deadly long distance shot which this time look just wide. Tony bravely chested the fast ball into the net. To the neutral observer it looked like a totally casual goal with Tony knowing nothing about it. But those who know what the Italian is capable of, are ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was perhaps a stroke of luck which anyway Colours didn’t need, such was their superiority.
Besides, the Orange team was dispirited with much finger pointing going on to the point that team effort was compromised with little, if any, communication between players, not to talk about self confidence and will to sacrify for the team.
FDs is about winning as much as it is about enjoying each others’ company: finger pointing does not help either. Hopefully we have seen enough.
Not even a crucial event like the silver goal, the last chance to redeem a bad bay, lifted the Orange now just willing to pack and go home. It took only few minutes for the Colours to seal the day with Francesco scoring his second with a deft touch within the box. He is a player who knows how to use energies: he reduces the mileage to the bare during the game to then be fit and ready to seize any opportunity arising in front of goal and today was no exception.
Al used to wear an Inter Milan shirt but has now found his true colours: rossoneri AC Milan. You can comfortably say Al is a man who learns from his mistakes…
The Man of the Match award, on such a one direction game, was heavily expected to be handed to a Colours’ players with the two obvious candidates being Johannes and Rahnadan (you can call him Ran if you are in a hurry). Johannes was the engine of the team and his early hat trick, not to mention the ‘assist’ to Tony, sealed the game early on. Remarkably the stats showed that he spent most of the time in his half resorting to clinical shots when deciding to score.
Rahnadan was the nice surprise of the game coupling athleticism with fine technique with that nutmeg Giancarlo would have been proud of. Besides, he stoically survived two career-threatening injuries, first a fortuitous front crash with Daoud and then a cannon ball in his privates. The selection committee therefore is happy for him to skip the six months Navy-Seals probation period: Ram is the Man! The only negative being that Nigeria is already in our 73 Nation count…
Rahnadan impressed everyone as a Rookie: his debut was a mix of resiliency and technique at the highest level.
As we all know football is unpredictable and so at time the MOTM nomination: the most surprising player today was the youngest one: Raphael. He took a very modern role on the wing and such was his mobility that you couldn’t tell whether he was a full back or a winger: probably both. Raphael decided not to be a peripheral figure, something brave at his age, and demanded involvement initiating one-twos, preferably with his trusted Dad but not only.
In the post match interview he cheekily said that for the time being he will park his MOTM trophy in his Dad cabinet but wouldn’t mind receiving his own at his next birthday.
COLOURS-ORANGE 8-3
GOALS
COLOURS: Johannes (3), Francesco (2), Nizar, Anton, Tony
ORANGE: Bijan, Daoud (2)
TEAMS
COLOURS: Ramadan, Anton, Johannes, Oliviero, Jonathan R, Davide, Nizar, Tony S, Francesco.
ORANGE: Alessandro, Hossam, Giancarlo, Bijan, Julien,
Raphael, Daniel, Morteza, Daoud.