Julien eclipses Cantona with stellar performance and five goals

You could tell even before kickoff that would have been Julien’s day. The game was at risk of not starting as one of the goal support metals was broken: Our French star managed to fix it deploying the skills of both a structural engineer and a sailor knotting a cord to the ground to hold up the goal frame. A collective sigh of relief went through the stands when FIFA officials gave the thumb up and it was game on.

There was less than half last well attendance for an intimate 6 v 5 game which more than made up in intensity and quality what was lacking in numbers. The ORANGE were one man down but immediately made it clear that geometry was one of their favourite subjects by letting the ball covering the ground like when Giancarlo found Julien with a long transversal ball on the edge of the box which the French made it easy to convert with a half volley that got Eric Cantona admitting ‘not sure I would have dared such a shot’.

The Galal axis with Hossam and Adam dominated midfield with Giancarlo starting the moves from the back feeding the fast counters which far too often and far too easily saw Julien and Adam at the receiving end. It was remarkable that despite all the running they were fresh and clinical in front of goal as if they had been watching the game comfortably on a sofa rather than playing it.

Julien raised serious doubt to be on drug as he went on to score five goals and doing the defending as well. Fans are nervously glued to their mobile on latest sport news to see if he has been cleared from the drug test. We are relaxed on the matter as so often in the past critics have resorted to explain FDs unreal performance as drug related while our trained eye just classify them as par for the course.

The Colours, heavily penalised by the score, poured into the Orange half with Andrea, Ben and Francesco bombarding Alessandro from every position just to find the goal firmly shut by outstanding saves, in quality and number. Only our fox ? in the box Tony S could not be denied as he scored a brace with two opportunistic tap ins.

While the Colours frustration was growing, Orange perfected their counters with a mix of art and science: at one point Adam run vertically through the pitch having Giancarlo, Hossam and Julien free as birds on his flanks facing just one defender:  he passed Giancarlo who chipped the keeper the way Mezut Ozil sometimes makes it only to touch the ball just over the bar. It didn’t not help that such bar was bending in a good yard thus depriving the Italian of the inclusion in the goal of the year competition.

The result was nonetheless out of reach when a remix was decided also following Francesco’s injury with Adam joining the Colours and giving them the consolation of the golden goal with a poisonous header flying over the keeper and taking Giancarlo by surprise on the opposite post.

The Man of the Match votes were unanimously regarded as superfluous. Without the French star, Alessandro would have grabbed the trophy with both hands but today Julien seemed to have biked in from another planet to tear apart the Colours defence and score more than the most prolific strikers while patrolling defence and midfield.

Adam also had a usual outstanding game mixing runs, tricks and goals. Dads left the pitch with the unpleasant thought of what will be MG9 with Adam in the game.  Luckily the event is one year away and anything can happen.

ORANGE-COLOURS 7-4

GOALS
ORANGE: Julien (5), Adam (2)
COLOURS: Tony S (2), Adam,

TEAMS
ORANGE: Alessandro, Giancarlo, Hossam, Julien, Adam
COLOURS:  Al, Ben, Thomas, Andrea, Francesco, Tony S.