Kids throwing the gauntlet down
It was a full house with 25 players staging a proxy of the MG9: 13 Kids v 12 Dads. The age gap somewhere around 35 years.
There was again a rookie in the person of Ali from Afghanistan with a solid contribution and a goal on debut as proper rookies do. Philipp also paid a welcome visit from Munich with his trademark pinpointed long ball flying over a very crowded midfield.
Beside Kids defence was strengthened by the super young brothers Victor and Arkady who moved across the pitch with the authority of a Vincent Kompany and hardly wasted any pass.
Kids had speed in spades but somehow Dads managed to keep them at bay and in fact scored a goal with Daoud. Well, it did look like a goal to many, especially to Dads and their fans but Kids claimed the ball did not cross the line. The VAR was yet again inconclusive and the goal was disallowed.
The anti-Dads conspiracy theory is growing bigger ahead of MG9. Are Kids, thanks to their superior tech-digital expertise corrupting the very VAR core software to their advantage? Dads will make sure the Ref is competent enough: only candidates with degrees in computer science will be shortlisted as the outcome of a MG can be hell or paradise for a full year and too many lives depend on it.We cannot simply let the outcome be tarnished by incompetence or worse.
The Dads’ morale took a severe hit and the Kids were fast to leverage it. Andrea must had had something very good for breakfast or simply have gone to sleep early as it proved uncatchable and planted the ball in the Dads’ net at the very first available opportunity. Luca also scored and the one-two shook Dads’ confidence further sending shivers down the fans’ spines with only one month to go before MG9.
Dads though reminded themselves of what they were made of and countered in force. At one point Daoud had a chance to score at blank point: as soon as he hit the ball with sheer power and precision none of the Dads’ feet were on the ground as everyone jumped in celebration anticipating the goal. Unfortunately no one asked Alessandro for the permission to score: hence he dived on his right bottom corner at double the speed Courtois usually does deflecting the shot off the post.
(For the records Paride was with Dad as an outside player as he suffered an hand injury and Kids were outnumbering Dads. Dads wish Paride a prompt recovery…soon after MG9…)
Anyway at this point Dads felt Kids were not invulnerable and Daoud proved the point followed by Paride but on the opposite side Giacomo, Ali and Arcelan made sure that the match was in the bag with a 5-3 score just minutes before midday.
The golden goal was there to prove the Kids superiority as Arcelan sealed it completing the game with the only brace of day and bagging also the Man of the Match award.
When it came instead to allocating the Dads’ goal, arguably a less debatable exercise, it was decided that Christian scored the third one. That might not have been the case but we feel, in absence of clear memory of who did it, that this is a just decision as the Italian player was deducted a couple in a previous match. Otherwise we assure players that we attach the utmost attention to allocating goal scoring as we are fully aware that this can be, from a money standpoint, a life changer.
DADS v KIDS 3-6
GOALS
KIDS: Andrea, Luca, Giacomo, Ali, Arcelan (2)
DADS: Daoud, Paride, Christian
TEAMS
KIDS: Alessandro, Luca, Antonio, Arkady, Victor, Gabriele, Johaness, Al, Arav, Arcelan, Giacomo, Ali, Andrea
DADS: Hossam, Hannes, Andre’, Philipp, Bjian, Christian, Paride, Julien, Giancarlo, Thomas, Francesco, Daoud
Top picture: after the match Giancarlo and Philipp worry about the coming Master Game