Le Roi c’est moi
The match could not start because the ball disappeared. As it turned out it was taken by Thomas who claimed to be the legitimate owner: in fact the German star was denied in the past few match commentaries not least than three goals: that amounts to a cumulative hat trick entitling him to possess the ball.
Such claim was promptly backed by the Independent Data Committee (IDC) and Thomas is going down in football history as the first ever player to be awarded a retroactive hat trick ball. Not a mean feature and a triumph of football justice as well.
The game could then start: the Orange showed right away an urgency to score as Yassin arrival for the Colours was delayed by few minutes. It was Johaness, who else, who planted the ball in Alessandro’s net just when the Moroccan superstar was about to enter the pitch.
Even with Yassin on the pitch the Colours confidence did not evaporate: if any the opposite. The commanding figure of Chetan in the back allowed the rest of the Orange team to play high with Sara and Keith on the flanks, Johannes, Julien, Al and Raphael in the middle both able to protect defence and relaunch to feed Nizard and Francesco in attack.
On the opposition side Mohammad was back in action providing an effective link between midfield and strikers. Also the new rookie Diego F proved that, after champions like Diego Artaza and young Diego Drndalovski, the name itself is synonymous with quality players who can make the difference in the pitch.
Upfront it was a clash of Titans between Hannes and Nizard: they were playing for their life on every ball and even at the end of the match you couldn’t not tell who won the last ditch duel. Both got top marks from most of the commentators such was the intensity and quality of the fight.
In the meanwhile Colours extended their lead with a goal of Nizard followed by Al but Yassin kept his team in contention thanks to a brace: the second goal was with a surgical header on a pin pointed cross by Diego F from the corner flag.
The Colours were affected by a double injury: Thomas early in the game and then Andrea, aka Puskas later on. Francesco and young Raphael swapped side to rebalanced the teams and that paid I stand dividend as the Sicilian put the finishing touch to a majestic team move.
Brilliance was not though isolated as on the other front Julien scored the goal of the day by converting well outside the box a long distance corner with a straight volley flying low into the bottom left corner of Alessandro’s goal. Le Roy Michel Platini would have loved to have that in his top goal list.
Questions about Oranges’ ability to fight back and claim victory started to spread as they had always been behind and with few minutes and little energies to spare it was highly unlikely they could make it.
But miracles are sort of a weekly event around the Pond: Diego managed to shoot a tricky ball toward Paride who could not do much about it also thanks to a fortuitous deflection by Francesco. Fans on the stands went crazy and started shouting ‘golden goal, golden goal’ as if the victory was just the appetiser. Yassin, who else, answered the call of duty by scoring the ultimate goal of the day giving the fan the excuse for a perfect weekend in this unlikely sunny bright mid November day.
As there were many players claiming the Man of the Match award the votes were quite dispersed and, perhaps surprisingly but nevertheless deservingly, the accolade went to Julien as his stunning goal will live long in the mind and the eyes of those present at the game today. Besides he is one of the long standing unsung heroes able to always rise from the receiving hand of the many tackles by his opponents.
A final note of merit also to his son Raphael who, despite the very young age, did not waste a single ball never shying away from the action.
COLOURS-ORANGE 5-4
GOALS
COLOURS: Yassin (3), Francesco, Diego F.
ORANGE: Johaness, Nizard, Al, Julien,
TEAMS:
COLOURS: Alessandro, Hannes (Francesco) Thomas, Bijan, Andrea P (Raphael), Diego F, Yassin, Mohammad, Giancarlo
ORANGE: Paride, Chetan, Keith, Julien, Sara, Johannes, Raphael, Francesco, Al, Nizard.