No blood no party
What do you do when you see Khaled in the box preparing to jump for one of his signature bicycle kicks? Easy answer: you watch in awe. Everyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo, would just stay still, eyes on him, and simply enjoy the show.
Well, everyone except Hannes.
Here is a man whose only mission on Saturday morning is to prevent the other team to score and win, come what may, and today Khaled was not on his team.
Without thinking twice (or even once) about it, Hannes put his head on the ball right at the moment where Khaled was about to hit it, denying him an almost certain goal. At the key moment of his acrobatic kick Khaled didn’t find the ball but rather Hannes face, hitting him hard above the eye. The sight of blood impressed some of the younger players but not Hannes, who simply thought of this as a job done and carried on playing.
In fact, Hannes shone again few minutes later, when he scored one of the most amazing goals ever seen in Kensington Gardens. A long distance shot from over 30 meters that flew over the heads of half of the players like a shooting star in a moonless summer night, and ended in goal near the top corner, with Paride unable to do anything about it. A perfectly calibrated ballistic piece that will certainly be shortlisted for the goal of the season.
It’s too bad that both those remarkable events were not captured on camera. In fact, from the beginning there was some palpable disappointment among the players when they realised there was going to be no video recording today.
The reason, as explained by the club spokesperson, is that the last two weeks were just a test, to gauge the interest. The reaction has exceeded every expectation. Our highlights are now in the top 5 of YouTube content worldwide and every serious international broadcaster has contacted us asking (begging?) us to license them. The Club now wants to take a bit of time to negotiate a fair deal and to source appropriate equipment, aiming to be ready in time for the next Master Game (fast approaching, check the countdown on the homepage).
As of the match today, for a good part it was dominated by the Bibs, who played with more gusto and scored with Elliott, Khaled and Adam getting a comfortable 3-0 lead. The late arrival of Johannes gave the Unbibs the extra energy and flair they needed to fight back. They started to create more chances and they found the net with Marco twice (one of which was another beautiful header). Hannes’ goal was then matched by other Bibs signature bringing the score to 4-3 for the Bibs, only for Johannes to finally bring parity with his golden goal.
After the match, while collecting the Man of The Match award, Hannes played down his face injury: “It was nothing, really. I was actually worried my head could hurt Khaled’s foot!“.
As for the lack of video recording, all players acknowledged that it didn’t have any impact whatsoever on their playing. “You don’t play for the camera” concluded Francesco philosophically “the camera plays for you“.
Bibbed-Unbibbed 4-4
Scorers:
Bibbed: Elliott, Khaled (2), Adam,
Unbibbed: Marco (2),Hannes, Johannes
Teams:
Bibbed:Paride, Hossam, Tarek, Filippo, Adam, Elliott, Sara, Roberto, Francesco, Khaled
Unbibbed: Cethan, Hannes, Thomas, Julien, Philipp (Johannes), Federico, Andrea, Giancarlo, Marco, Tony S.