Sara and Diego steal the show as Mauritius joins the Club as the 65th Nation
Franz Beckenbauer would have been very proud to be on the pitch today but equally happy on how the German contingent deputised him.
At one point Johaness came out, head high from its own defence and split the pitch in two with a penetrating pass with the outside of his foot putting his teammate behind enemy line. Something that was par for the course for Franz. Thomas instead decided it was the right time to leave a celebratory mark on the game with a brace out of two occasions: not bad for a full back!
Hannes finally, other than putting strikers in their place as usual, at one point rushed to take a free kick earned by Daoud on the edge of the penalty box. While everyone position himself for the ball to land in the Serpentine as our own Kaiser’s furious run in suggested, Hannes instead kept a cool head and quick feet to put the ball with a soft touch on a plate for Thomas to convert.
It was a cumulative concerted effort to pay homage to one of the few Greats who has made the game beautiful both as player, coach and manager. May be not everyone knows about his nickname. Der Kaiser was once in Vienna with the squad visiting the Hofburg and took a picture next to Kaiser Franz Joseph and from then on the nickname stuck. RIP Der Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer.
Today it was a full house, if not packed with a thrilling 10 v 9 game soon becoming even post early departure of Victor. The return of the two role goalkeepers only meant that strikers had to try extra hard to score as wishful thinking shots were just not contemplated.
One big feature was that after a long while we have a new NATION to add, that is 🇲🇺 MAURITIUS our 65th courtesy of rookie Jonathan who had an excellent game with a commanding presence on the left side both defensively and pushing forward, always complemented by Anton who often overlapped and always excelled in distribution from behind. Ali was also back in action battling for the same spot in an exciting duel.
There were other moments when sheer class was displayed at no extra cost for the fans: Paride responded to a shot hitting the ball so hard that it ended straight in the arm of Alessandro at the opposite goal.
At one point Giancarlo glued to his right foot a ball falling from the sky while Sara placed few precision shots that had Paul Scholes commenting: ‘That’s the closest to my passing since I retired. Instead of wasting time with the many puppets that have populated Man U midfield in the last decade, the club should look no further than Sara“.
Questions such as ‘can a girl play professionally with a male team? If not will one day be possible?’ seem to have an answer now that Sara is bursting with two feet into the scene. We know from reliable sources that Man U has doubled the size of its Equal Opportunities desk and told them not to leave the office until the young Galal has been employed and deployed.
As for our game, the double act Diego-Daoud hit off immediately as they combined beautifully both in the build up and in the finalisation of the play. Before the Orange defence knew, they had already scored a brace each, among which a couple of screamers.
On the opposite front it didn’t help that Yassin got his penalty saved by Paride with a great dive but revenge for a player like Yassin is just when and where he decide to take it: that was only few minutes after when he sent an innocuous ball outside the box into the top right corner.
Still the gap between the two teams was wide and the algos unsentimentally ordered a Diego v Giancarlo switch to give Orange fresh blood. Diego duly obliged scoring his third goal of the day, the first for the Orange but even that was not enough to turn the tide as on the other side
Daoud, Thomas and Johannes inflicted yet more pain leaving the Orange to appeal for the golden goal. At which point the Colours fans started singing ‘the winner takes it all’ suggesting that their appetite was not yet quite done for the day and they just wanted more.
The cherry on the cake came when Giancarlo hooked a corner sending a tricky ball into the Orange box: Daoud was the first to react with an instinctive short range touch that sealed the day in style for the Colours.
Daoud and Thomas went into the votes as favourites for the Man of the Match award but it was Diego the trophy was handed to for his strong contribution to both sides scoring a hat trick, working his socks off around the pitch, not sparing any energy despite another forthcoming 6 a side game the same afternoon and a Uni Sunday League match the day after.
While is so true that younger generations are not prepared to suffer as much as older ones, it might be risky to extend this to Football Kids.
COLOURS-ORANGE 9-3
GOALS
COLOURS: Daoud (4), Thomas (2), Diego (2), Johannes
ORANGE: Yassin, Diego, Julien
TEAMS
COLOURS: Paride, Hossam, Anton, Andrea M, Thomas, Jonathan, Johannes Diego (Giancarlo), Daoud
ORANGE: Alessandro, Andre’, Hossam, Sara, Julien, Ali, Yassin, Mohammad, Giancarlo (Diego), Victor