Orange Triumphs in Thrilling 5-4 Clash Thanks to Yassin’s Late Strike
The moment Hossam started his warm up, including impressive flying press-ups, everyone grabbed and hid a bib to wear in case the Egyptian superstar was fielded with the Orange.
Still, the team selection was a very disciplined exercise with a one-on-one process aimed at guaranteeing the most balanced outcome. Just by looking superficially at the end result, a tight 5-4 for the Orange, it was Mission accomplished. In fact, this was not even a one off as a long series of results have recently gone to the wire.
At first glance, Orange appeared light in defence with only Thomas as a role player, but such an assessment soon proved out of contest as Yassin, Gillian and Salvatore put in the miles providing coverage and initiating quick counters carried forward by the fresh legs of Omer, Jonathan D and young Arman.
The latter was lately described as a confident young player, while now he is boarding into a cheeky one: at one point he was holding the ball at the edge of the Colours’ box and suddenly, with a deft dummy, got past no less than Hossam going on to almost score, something that he did later anyway.
The Colours attack started off on ‘hit and miss’ mode but soon adjusted to ‘hit only’. Matteo score with an imperious header from the edge of the box after a fast, pinpoint corner from Giancarlo: the ball crossed diagonally through the box and ended up in the opposite corner. A pair of wings would have been the only useful tool for Paride to stop the shot, but there was none around and it was too late to order them on Amazon. Matteo also scored another brilliant goal with his right foot, proving he is a complete striker: a much needed addition for the MG11.
On the opposite front, it was the recent new re-hire Jonathan D who stole the early show by scoring a brace and keeping the game alive. Yassin added another and was initially denied on a second attempt: his violent, point-blank shot was miraculously saved by Alessandro who sacrificed his nose for the cause, only for speedy Arman to tap in the rebound.
At this point Orange seemed to have the upper hand but one of the Colours’ game changers, namely Diego, realised that he was on a football pitch and not anymore on a dancing floor: he quickly put a brace to his name sending the game back to parity before the decisive golden goal.
Yassin scoring only a goal in a game is an anomaly that needed to be rectified so no one was really surprised when he decided to end the thrilling game with yet another golden goal.
Before that, he wasn’t a straightforward Man of the Match, as players like Matteo and Gillian had excellent games. Also Salvatore, a Rookie not previously registered, showed that he can treat the ball properly.
Yassin departure back to Morocco is clouded by the interference of Downing Street, who wants to put a big price tag to the move to sort out once and for all its trade imbalance and to nullify the impact of new US tariffs.
ORANGE-COLOURS 5-4
TEAMS
ORANGE: Paride, Thomas, Yuness, Yassin, Gillian, Salvatore, Omer, Jonathan D, Arman,
COLOURS: Alessandro, Bijan, Hossam, Johannes, Diego D, Andrea M, Giancarlo, Matteo, Francesco
GOALS
ORANGE: Jonathan D (2), Yassin (2), Arman
COLOURS: Matteo (2), Diego D (2)
Commentary by Giancarlo
Photo by Tony L
