‘If you have two balls, bring them both!’
It was never going to be a game for the faint hearted.There were some bold decisions taken well before the match. For example, Francesco did not hesitate, perhaps to scare opposition, to state:’ I have just realised I have two balls. Bringing both’.
The Palace pitch was wet and green, proud to host back FDs who had to field 8 v 7 teams owing to the overall odd number. In fact the Orange had all the right to be one man up as they faced a phenomenal opposition in flagrant violation of the number one common sense rule: never play Yassin and Johannes together.
There were some remarkable comebacks: Julian strengthened the German contingent and brought the great news that he is getting married soon. FDs hope to be able to employ him at some stage and this is a step in the right direction if not a game changer in due time. Daoud was there as well from his absence dating back to the MG8 bringing his much needed firepower upfront. The others were pretty much household names, those the fans are used to chant Saturday in, Saturday out.
Despite being one man up the Orange played only Daoud upfront, such predominant was the need to build in midfield around Johannes and Yassin a double cage to try and stop their restless running. Paride was immediately tested multiple times and his performance was par for the course denying Colours’ strikers with arms and legs, literally putting his body on the line not allowing the ball to get past it.
On the opposite front Orange played a simple game of getting the ball to Daoud who would prove lethal even with his back to the goal. On one of his turns he found the net giving his team an unlikely lead. ‘Daoud can score with the same facility we brush our teeth in the evening’ was one of the comment picked up in the stand. Even more so today that he had to cope with a formidable Teutonic quartet made by Hannes-Johaness-Tom-Julian. Their defending was impeccable and hardly a ball was wasted on counters.
Tom also was back gracing the game and adding solidity and reliability to the Colours’ defence and midfield. After the goal it was all good on the Orange front but the overwhelming question was:’will it last?’
For the Colours it was not a matter of awakening to the new reality but just be more clinical in front of goals hoping that Paride would at some stage run out of miracles. That happened as soon as the deadly pair Y-J decided it was time to shake the dust off Paride’s net and that happened three times with breathtaking exuberance.
There were also a couple of other co-actors: at one critical point in the game a poisonous ball was sent across the edge of the Orange box with no legitimate owner in sight until Hannes bending it with the outside of his right foot sent it into the bottom of the net close to the post. Chapeau! Some critics who in the past labelled Hannes as ‘just another rude defender’ were spotted leaving the stadium inconspicuously.
The other player taking centre stage was Al whose distribution and finalisation skills are growing by the week: he took a decentralised ball in midfield and run straight into goal avoiding defenders’ interference planting the ball in the opposite low corner.
Francesco was also actively involved in all the moves though is yet to reach peak form after his absence: still he always attracted the interest of 3-4 defenders which, given that Orange were playing with a 2-4-1 system was quite remarkable.
While the result was compromised at 5-1, the Orange midfield worked his socks off to feed Daoud resulting in a countless number of corners: on one of which Paride came close to emulate Provedel with a flying header a whisker away from the far post. It would have been the goal of the season!
The winners were not in the mood today to leave anything on the table and Johaness ruthlessly made sure with a thundering shot that all the day’s honours were going the Colours’ way.
The Man of the Match award went to the best all-rounded performance that was produced by Hannes who alternated efficiently destruction and creativity in different part of the pitch. Unfortunately he won’t be able to join us for our reunion dinner on 29/11 as he has a piano concert, meaning he will be the pianist. We hope one day the CLUB will get the funding for a solo concert for FDs.
COLOURS-ORANGE 6-1
GOALS
COLOURS: Johaness 2, Yassin 2, Hannes, Al
ORANGE: Daoud
TEAMS
COLOURS: Hannes, Tom, Julian, Johaness, Yassin, Al, Francesco
ORANGE: Paride, Hossam, Bijan, Julien, Sara, Adam G, Giancarlo, Daoud