Raising the game
The pitch had unfrozen, the turnout was strong, and countless spectators got to watch a cracking game of football (which was arguably among the best ones the chronist has experienced). Given late and new arrivals, team selection has become an ever greater bone of contention. Yes, don’t put Yassin and Johannes together, but how about Anton, how about Alex? What do you do if Diego shows up after 30min and Yassin after 45min?
In fairness, team selection may have been a factor in an ultimately clear win by the Unbibbed team, but it wasn’t as close as the result suggested (8-4), and clearly their win also benefited from many of their players having a particularly stellar day. Andrea M tidied up in defense while providing danger on the wing, while Julien put in one of his best performances ever, diligently defending, superbly passing and even scoring (spoiler alert: he was the Man of the Match). The only concern expressed by their managers that they should not peak too early, given the length of the season ahead.
Both defenses and goalies had a lot of work to do, and without their hard work this game could have seen even more goals, given the quality of the strikers on both sides. Reinforced by Diego, the Unbibbed went into a 5:0 lead by which time Yassin arrived. After some constructive dialogue and only some limited shouting, it was decided that he would join the Bibbed, with Dario switching sides for compensation. Yassin quickly put on the turbo and scored four unstoppable goals (one with his heel), taking the score to 6:4. With their victory at risk, the Unbibbed refocused and went on to score the next two goals, taking the final score to 8:4.
As an aside, it was decided that for the next few months (at least through end of June) there will not be a Friday survey on participation (unless in exceptional weather conditions). Turnout on the last two weekends was excellent, even if it looked otherwise on the chat, so no one should think there won’t be enough lions on the pitch in the coming months.
Bibbed-Unbibbed 8-4
Bibbed: Paride, Massimo, Andre, Anton, Ishan, Alex (Greece), Yassin (4), Matej, Federico, (Dario), Arkady
Unbibbed: Alessandro, Branko, Julien (1), Johannes (1), Hannes, Thomas (2), Alex (2), Andrea Milano, Diego (2), (Dario)
Commentary by Hannes