Colours exploit every advantages to secure win
Aurian led the charge with a hat-trick, but Matteo’s all-round display earned the loudest applause.
It’s a well-known fact that players’ attendance at the weekly game tends to increase exponentially as the date of the Master Game approaches.
While ordinary weekly matches occasionally struggle to reach quota, the sight of the sacred Master Game causes retired legends, injured defenders and missing strikers to reappear spontaneously. A phenomenon known in academic circles as Ragni’s Law of Football Availability.
The reason is clear: the competition to be included in the squad, let alone be part of the starting XI, is so fierce that even celebrated stars like Mbappé or Vinicius would struggle to be considered unless they first show up to demonstrate their prowess on the grass of Kensington Palace.
With this in mind, nobody was surprised to see a huge turnout (23 players) and the return of a familiar face, Daoud, back after a few months’ absence.
Dressed with his signature long trousers, Daoud had a decent game for the Oranges and showed some of his classic moves, but failed to get on the scoresheet, something unusual for such a prolific striker. His teammates did not have better luck, with the only exception of the ever-reliable Ross who managed to score twice. Still not enough to avoid losing 5-2 to a stronger (and luckier) Colours team.
Colours benefited from several advantages: they could field an extra player and the only professional goalkeeper (Alessandro). But the real plus for them turned out to be having Aurian in the squad, author of a flawless performance, crowned by a hat-trick.
Playing with cinematic flair, and aided in attack by Francesco, JonathanR and fellow filmmaker Noah, the young Frenchman set the tone by scoring twice in the first 20 minutes, allowing Colours to get an early lead. Further opportunities to extend the lead were squandered by the Colours, perhaps out of an excess of confidence.
But with FDs you can never relax. In fact, Oranges got back in the game with two goals from Ross, proving they could overcome the numeric disadvantage. But the draw didn’t last for long.
When a deadly ball arrived in their box, Al went confidently towards it to clear it, but his touch actually sent the ball into its own net, much to goalkeeper Kaan’s dismay. A classic own goal that allowed the Colours to regain the lead (3-2).
After Aurian further increased the advantage with his third goal (4-2), Oranges knew they had to do something extraordinary to change their fate, but struggled to create chances. Morteza, Hussain and Julien tried cutting through the Colours defence from every angle, but the task proved to be more difficult than navigating the Strait of Hormuz.
As the official FD timekeeper, Bijan kept reminding his Oranges team that time was running out: “15 minutes left!”, “14 minutes left!”, “13 minutes left!” and so on. A dramatic countdown worth of a NASA space launch.
With only few minutes left, Matteo, who had been commanding stoically the Colours’ defence, asked permission to go upfront.
He didn’t disappoint and within a few minutes scored the Golden Goal, fixing the score at a comfortable 5-2 for the Colours, and bringing home a well-deserved MOTM Award.
You may wonder why Matteo doesn’t play routinely as a striker, considering he has one of the best scoring record in the entire FD history in terms of goals per minute played in a forward position. That’s a reasonable question, and the ultimate manager’s dilemma. He is terrific both as a defender and an attacker, a true jack-of-all trades.
Perhaps the only solution would be to clone him, but the science is not there yet.
COLOURS
Alessandro, Matteo (1), Aurian (3), Noah, Gregorio, Francesco, JonathanR, and others
ORANGES
Morteza, Hussain, Julien, Kaan, Johannes, Dario, Ross (2), Al (1, own goal), and others