Julien’s heroics not enough against a Moroccan-inspired team
The five a side games are always approached with mixed feeling: on the positive side you get to play a lot of the ball, on the negative you simply cannot pause. The kind of players today on the pitch would enjoy the first and not bothered by the second, such was the fabric they were made of.
When the formations were announced it was clear to everyone that the algos issue had not been solved as the Colours team looked blessed by an unmatchable mix of speed and experience. A choice of ‘Yassin v Rest of the World’ would have probably made more sense. Remarkably though after a dozen of minutes the score was still 0-0 mostly thanks to amazing repetitive saves by Paride denying every Colours’ striker, much to their frustration.
As if that was not enough, the Orange veterans had a nasty surprise up their sleeves: in a five a side defender have to step up their game and master the last pass as well. Massimo rose to the occasion and served Giancarlo an inviting ball at the left edge of the Colours’ box: there was still work to be done and nice work the Italian did by sending a missile shot across the goal into the opposite top corner. All Yassin could do was to touch the ball without altering the trajectory. This was the fourth consecutive game Giancarlo put is the name on the score list: Messi with 21 is just behind the corner…
The Orange fans cheering was loud but short as if they knew better. The sleeping giant, that is the Colours’ team, awoke abruptly outraged at the turn the game was taking: Yassin prevented and exacted immediate multiple revenge with all the team producing runs at a tempo the more static Orange squad could just not match.
A pleasant addition for the Colours and indeed for Football Dads community was rookie Abdel from Morocco who impressed throughout the game: he bagged a hat trick despite playing with flat-sole shoes in a wet pitch.
At 5-1 it was clear that Orange needed to tap the market with urgency: at the Treasurer’s approval a switch between Hossam and Andrea P was performed. Initially the momentum swung and the Orange had multiple occasion to score leveraging the aerial prowess of Paride who left goal to try and turn the match but somehow lacked at times precision on the day and was denied also by the rotating keepers.
Once the furious Orange reaction evaporated, the Colours re established the law and made the most of fresh blood: in fact Andrea started to play like Puskas alternating dribbles, dummies and assists, one in particular putting the ball on a plate for Abdel to convert
Things went from bad to worse for the Orange: Julien injured himself once again and once again decided not to give up refusing to be subbed. The fact that there were no substitutes takes nothing away from his decision and the subsequent heroic performance in goal where he was bombarded from every angle, especially from Nizard and Sara. The French was also an inspired first passer of the ball for his team. But there was nothing to do to stop Yassin: yet again he graced the game with one of his signature straight line coast to coast goal which saw even the opposition fans celebrating at its beauty.
With little time to spare and the score at 9-4 there was only the golden goal left as a consolation for the Orange but Yassin decided to leave nothing on the table with a superb shot with ‘don’t even think about stopping me’ written all over it’ ending the game and with it the Orange suffering.
The Man of the Match vote did not register a single vote for Yassin as it was made clear he already exceeded the monthly cap. The winner instead emerged to be our French unsung hero Julien who fought to the end, as always, as if his life depended on it.
COLOURS-ORANGE 10-4
GOALS
COLOURS: Yassin (7), Abdel (3)
ORANGE: Giancarlo, Massimo, Paride (2)
TEAMS
COLOURS: Yassin, Hossam (Andrea P), Sara, Abdel, Nizard
ORANGE: Paride, Julien, Massimo, Giancarlo, Andrea P (Hossam)
Top pictures: rookie Abdel from Morocco marked his debut with a hat trick