27 players came to salute summer in the last game of the hot season. The weather was ideal, not too hot, not too cold. The pitch still far from the ideal venue for such a distinguished sample of footballers. Yet, when you step into a ‘do or die’ fight there are more pressing issues than the state of the battleground. And that was clear by simply watching at the intensity of the looks exchanged among contenders.
When it comes to teams selection the CLUB has decided to ditch AI: the fundamental problem is that the latter compiles and interprets public data taken from ordinary players while FDs are about private data and extraordinary players. Hardly the solution required. Herr Meister Hannes was confirmed for the delicate job and yet again he delivered two balanced teams for a game much tighter than the final score suggested.
Wisely, he put a rock solid defence where the role keeper was missing: Hannes, Hossam and Bijan would comfortably feature as a block defence in the ideal XI formation of all time. To score against them today you would need consummate strikers equipped with skills and luck. A fair amount of scepticism was evident when Colours announce that they would field Giancarlo as a sole, static striker, occasionally supported by Morteza and Aurian on the flanks.
Orange midfield was packed with 6 players mixing experience and exuberance. Upfront a trio who needed no introduction with Nizar, Francesco and Oliviero. In the past these guys showed ability to score cumulatively in double digit territory. Few bookmakers put money on Orange to win before the opposition team was even announced. Should they have known better?
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Colours responded with a very young back line but had their goal guarded by Alessandro: his agent is gloating seeing the ‘black spider’ market value going up week after week. The combination of his magic saves and the role scarcity value is making him priceless. Both midfield and attack were reliant on fresh blood with the notable exception of Giancarlo. Gregorio as a playmaker was the best guarantee that the most would have been extracted by the compartments.
At times football loves to mock those that make early, easy predictions: it was in fact Giancarlo to open the score for the Colours with a right footed angled volley on a cross which flew over enemies’ box. On the opposite front the trident was firing blank, not least because Alessandro was sending back everything thrown at him, including a low, silent, missile fire by Oliviero which the ‘back spider’ saved on his close post with his leg when Orange were already celebrating.
Rahnadan was the heart and soul of Orange , fighting on every ball and still managing to be at the right place at the right moment when his presence was requested to score. It started with a header followed by two more goal to complete a majestic performance with a hat trick which represented 100% of the harvest of his team. But that was not enough as Colours put up a performance of a lifetime: Aurian assisted twice and scored one, Giancarlo converted another volley with his left foot while JR hit the net with the goal of the match, a ballistic masterpiece from distance, terminating its run just under the bar, barely seen by the keeper.
The game stood at a goal difference for a long time with Colours defending stoically, anxiously asking how many more minutes to go before the 11.45 mark. The whistle came as a liberation for the Colours while it signalled a wake up call and a revenge act for the Orange as the golden goal could have turned them from villains to hero in front of their own fans who just didn’t know whether they were to face a miserable or ecstatic weekend with the inevitable fall out on family and friends.
Unfortunately for them Colours were not in a charitable mood and they wanted more, now addicted to the taste of victory. Smayan, at the bottom of the right flank, hooked a ball and first defended it and then with a double dribble got rid of his markers and placed it on a plate in the middle of the small Orange box for Morteza to convert it to seal the day for Colours with a triumph the vast majority didn’t not see coming before the game started and remained sceptical throughout it.
It was a black Saturday for bookmakers who stopped at the obvious without doing extra due diligence and lost a fortune.
The Man of the Match was a face off between Giancarlo and Rahnadan. While we have often argued that the winner must come from the winning team, when you actually score a hat trick (both header and feet) without having actually spent much time in attack but rather running up and down the pitch for the benefit of the team, well that points toward the definition of a complete footballer able to prove himself in any part of the pitch. We are sure many other awards will follow but in the meanwhile, Rahn, enjoy this well deserved one!
Giancarlo was nonetheless gratified by many messages posted on the web by fellow players, including past legends. Didier Drogba quipped: ‘I share with Giancarlo many similarities. While in my prime I was a little bit faster than today’s Giancarlo, his skills on the ball remain unmatched. At time I struggled to convert volleys from tight angles, something Giancarlo does naturally and consistently as shown today. Not to talk about his curling-in corners: it was a shame that his one today, who looked beyond the line when JD headed it out, was ruled out without VAR check. This is the ultimate evidence that technology is not used for the good of the game! And I stop here’.
COLOURS-ORANGE
GOALS
COLOURS: Giancarlo (2), Aurian, Jonathan R, Morteza (gg=golden goal)
ORANGE: Rahnadan (3)
TEAMS
COLOURS: Alessandro, Nadir, Kaan, Karim, Daniel, Dario, Gregorio, Jonathan R (JR), Davide, Smayan, Giancarlo, Aurian, Morteza
ORANGE: Hannes, Hossam, Bijan, Al, Jonathan D (JD), Andrea M. Julien, Sina, Rahnadan, Eran (Battu), Oliviero, Nizar, Francesco