Daoud's firing power leads Colours to Royal victory, blessed by a White Swan while 'Yuv's Law' marks a progress for Science.
What a World Cup! All the top players turning up to claim the golden boot and take their teams to the final. But let’s not forget that true football greatness is best measured with Master Games won, though there is not denying that the World Cup is a good proxy.
Some WC games come close, in terms of adrenaline intake, to our Saturday battles but, among others, would never be able to host surprise events like the one we witnessed today. Since their departure from Kensington Palace, from which they could discreetly watch every game, Royals have not only not turned up at any game but also didn’t send any sign of their affection.
Yet today, perhaps embarrassed by the long absence, they sent an unequivocal sign of where they would rather be on a Saturday morning. At one point when the fight was raging, a big, white, regal Swan (one of those protected and registered) landed in the middle of the pitch. The huge bird betrayed a clear sense of entitlement so that any rush action to get rid of him would have been been met by a fierce, regal resistance with a line of park wardens ready to punish anti- Royal behaviour .
As always, FDs came out with the perfect solution which both appeased and pleased the Swan: two line of players were formed in no time and while the Swan was going through them, he was given a standing ovation until finally he displayed his wings to fly over the pond landing in Kensington Palace where news were eagerly awaited.
As the Royal Swan stole the scene, few ordinary dogs planning their usual encroachment to chase the ball, thought it was better to postpone the raid to a different not to look second best, their eventual invasion met by indifference .
There was also a curious event that puzzled scientists, more specifically physicists when Yuv directed a strong header against the post. Being an elastic band the ball was expected to either go in the net or outside. Instead, it did bounce back as if hitting a solid post.
Physicists were left with no option but to call it the ‘Law of Yuv’ which states unequivocally : ‘When a ball hits an elastic post it will go either in or out. Unless is hit by Yuv’. Later Yuv with an amazing shot hit the top corner with the ball going out. This allowed the ‘Law of Yuv’ to be further restricted to posts, excluding bars and top corners. Contributing to the progress of science is just another FDs endeavour.
At the start of the game there was a new young face: Simon from South Korea played a good game as a reliable right back for Colours. Unfortunately, SK is already among our 74 Nations. We went from 66 at the time of the Master Game Anniversary two yers ago to 74 today. At this pace, which is necessarily slowing, to fill the 195 Nations recognised by ONU it will take 30 years. Perhaps we should create in parallel TFDs (Touring Football Dads) which play every Saturday in a country not yet present in the list. Something the Board should give considerations to.
Karim was back after a long absence and it didn’t take him much to open the dances for the Orange: Giancarlo received a ball midfield, back to the goal, and sensing that behind him there was a move by a team mate, produced a blind pass (a no look would have not done it…) for Karim. There was at that point still work to be done and Karim did it impeccably putting Orange in front. Sensorial Football is another specialty FDs excel at.
The goal, paradoxically, produced the effect to outrage Colours which reacted furiously with Daoud leading the charge: by the end of the match he showed ‘four of a kind’ (ha calato un poker) which for him is just par for the course. The score was further rounded by a goal by Josh who was back in the game in very good shape and by young Arman who is increasingly becoming a well-rounded player, able to assist and score as well as to alternate his game between the two opposite flanks. His father-agent did well to refute early offers which looked generous at the time, almost offensive now.
The fighting spirit though never deserted Orange who were always in the game scoring also with Yuv, JR and Christian. Davide went close to score few times and showed increased stamina by chasing opponents when dispossessed.
Colours brought this aggressiveness into the golden goal as they badly wanted something out of this game. And they were rewarded when Karim bagged it to seal the match with a superb brace.
When the top scorer with four goals belongs to the winning team it’s very likely he will also be the winner of the Man of the Match Award. When that man is Daoud the high probability becomes a certainty. It should also infer that his marker, Christian in this instance, had a bad day in the office. Quite the opposite: it was a clash of titans. With another player marking him probably Daoud would have scored a bundle. Christian often was able to challenge him and come out of the box head high like Cannavaro in Italy v Germany in 2006 World Cup. Besides, the Italian scored a goal and went close to another one with an imperious header which shaved the bar
on a long throw by Yuv. Karim was back with a bang and his brace, one of which was the golden goal, warranted him a place on the podium.
The bad news is that this great World Cup will be soon finished. The good news is that it will be FDs football as usual every Saturday until further notice.
Twenty two years and counting.
COLOURS-ORANGE 7-6
GOALS
COLOURS: Daoud (4), Josh, Arman, Ross
ORANGE: Karim (2),Yuv (2), Jonathan R, Christian
TEAMS
COLOURS: Simon, Josh, Amin, Johannes, Jonathan L, Kaan, Daniel, Robbie, Ross, Daoud, Arman
ORANGE: Alessandro, Andrea, Jonathan R, Christian, Karim, Giancarlo, Davide, Dario, Yuv, Francesco