MASTER GAME 3 -> THE FATHER (and SON) OF ALL BATTLES

DADS-KIDS 4-3 SCORERS: Daniel, Philipp, Olivier, Davide (D) v James (2), Andrea (K)
It is said of Churchill that he rehearsed one hour for every minute of his speech and he was not a natural speaker…
Football Dads (FDs) are indeed natural players yet they rehearsed one Saturday for every minute of the Master Game (MG) 3.
Agamemnon was ready to sacrifice his own kid for a bit of wind to sail and conquer Troy. FDs would have gladly done that with their own kids for victory today or even a dodgy goal
Obsessive and merciless: this was the temperature into the MG.
The noise by the fans was such you could not hear a thing, much to the advantage of Dads who knew every move by heart and didn’t need to shout them.
Kids were dealt an early blow as their captain didn’t show up but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Luis took up operations and directed Kids with flair and inspired them to a superior performance with Nick E and injured Hannes alternating in goal. Luis adopted a super green line up and the young Lyons fought for their life making early prediction of a walk in the park for the Dads a wishful thinking exercise.
Still Daniel took an early lead for Dads only for Andrea to put the game back in parity. At this stage most of players and fans were already emotionally drained. Little they knew this was only the first of so many more twists and turns to come.
Olivier reminded us that the real drama today was not unfolding in France with the elections but in Holland Park with the MG when he scored a beauty with a header only to have to go out injured soon after among a standing ovation. Dads regained supremacy was again short lived as James G. scored a brace in rapid succession to put Kids in front for the first time. The emotional rollercoaster would only accelerate out of control when Jeremy T. managed to rescue Dads from what looked like a certain defeat with minutes to go: 3:3.
For the first time in its history the MG went to extra time and the fresher legs of the Kids produced an early lead, courtesy of a clever touch by Matteo. At this stage not a single bookmaker was taking bets on Dads.
That was neither a profitable nor a wise move as Philipp, yet again, proved to have a special relationship with the ball by placing it from the edge of the box into the top corner where not even Buffon and Neuer together would have taken it out.
It was game on with few minutes to spare before penalties. Talking of which Kids missed one early in the game and claimed a controversial one after Philipp goal. More on the press tomorrow
When already fans were moving towards the goal where penalties shoot outs were to be taken, the impossible happened. Davide raised from defence, ball on his foot, looked up and from an impossible distance calibrated a deadly yet delicious lob into the roof of the Kids goal.
Davide was awarded the Man of the Match trophy and could now run successfully for either French President or England PM with both positions in need of a sensible candidate.
His masterpiece sealed the MG3 and helped Dads to retain whatever is left of their Kids respect, at least for one more year
The fight goes on and from tomorrow it is all about Master Game 4

