Irresistible Bibs team denies “remuntada”
With the full pitch available, a classic end-autumn British weather and 14 first-class players (not to mention the two brand new goals, now an essential feature of the Football Dads) everyone knew that the show at Kensington Gardens was going to be nothing less than memorable.
With TonyL away on international duties, there was only one professional goalkeeper available, Paride. In the key minutes before the match the Bibs were quicker to sign him. Not happy with that, they had a Russian cyber-expert hack the team-making algorithm to ensure their team was blessed with more top players. Feeling they had the victory already in their pocket, the Bibs started to play with confidence and gusto and were the first to score, when Thomas with an Inzaghi-style tap-in converted in goal a shot by Julien.
The Unbibs had already showed good attacking potential and levelled up few minutes later with Marco, quick to find the back of the net with a shot on the low corner. But the draw didn’t last for long.
Moving the ball from one side to the other, the Bibs kept creating chances and scored four times in succession. First Johannes, Roberto twice, and finally Chetan, who sent the ball in goal with a glorious lob reminiscent of Michael Owen’s goal in a WorldCup semifinal England-Argentina. When the half-time whistle arrived, the Bibs could take pride of having set the score to a comfortable 5-1.
Despite finding themselves four goals down, the Unbibbed didn’t lose confidence and made it clear to everybody that their revised manifesto included one and only one objective: “Let’s get Remuntada done”.
The message was shouted loud and clear on the pitch and immediately acknowledged by the amazed crowd, who believed it could happen, although the task looked more difficult than bringing home the keys to Downing Street. A sign that the remuntada was indeed possible arrived at the start of the second half. From his goal, Jamal saw Giancarlo alone on the other side of the pitch and sent him the ball with a spectacular outside foot shot. Giancarlo played some magic to get rid of Paride and scored from an impossible angle with a Mo Salah-like movement. But few moments later Johannes scored again, re-establishing for the Bibs a four goal leads (6-2).
The next attempt to a glorious come-back was launched by Tony, who scored for the Unbibs, but it took Johannes a few seconds to score another one, this time thanks to a defensive pastiche combined by Tony and Hossam, followed by a new goal from Adam (8-3). After two more goals on each side (10-5), with the end approaching, the Unbibs launched an incredible series of attacks but Paride made five consecutive outstanding saves effectively denying their remuntada and winning the Man of the Match award.
Many players should be praised for their stellar performance: Johannes scored four times to reach the peak of the Top Scorer ranking. El Capitan scored an hat-trick, while Julian deserves credit for having been a rock in defence, even sacrificing his own nose to intercept a shot (see picture). But football is a team sport and so credits go to everyone: the Unbibs, for having been a terrific opponent and have kept the match dramatic until the last minute and to all the Bibs for having delivered an irrefutable, irresistible and unarguable win.
Bibbed v Unbibbed 10-5
Bibbed goals (Johannes 4, Roberto 3, Chetan, Thomas, Adam)
Unbibbed goals ( Marco, Giancarlo, Jamal, Tony 2)
Bibbed: Paride, Johannes, Julien, Adam, Chetan, Thomas, Roberto
Unbibbed: Hossam, Tarek, Pietro, Marco, Giancarlo, Tony, Jamal
