The balance of powers
Football Dads and Kids not turning up on a rainy day is like Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira missing Arsenal v Man United because of a running nose or sore nail: it just ain’t gonna happen.
As it proved very tasty for the last two weeks, today’s menu was more of the same with the Italians taking on the World. They sported a deadly mix of experience with Francesco, Federico, Giancarlo and youth with Leo, Giacomo, Luca and the two rookies
Antonio and Ulrico.
To counter that ROW (Rest Of the World) cherry picked the best available international stars in Hossam, Ben and Andre’ ruling defence , Julien, Philipp and Diego mastering midfield while Sara and Jeremy T creating havoc in attack.
You knew right from the start that such a balanced display of strengths could have been decided on the finest of margins with either team eager to capitalise on the others’ mistakes. Nothing was left to chance as the most sophisticated techniques were adopted even in the warm up phase as you can see in the video.
http://www.footballdads.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/WhatsApp-Video-2021-05-08-at-17.25.17.mp4
The Italians made an early loud statement when Leo curled in a screamer into the opposite top corner to have both Del Piero and Dybala claiming the trademark. A sure contender for the goal of the season.
The Italians were under no illusion that it was not going to be a walk in park especially when the opposite side could count on the services of Thierry Henry who today took the shape of an unchained Jeremy T who in rapid succession scored a brace. From then on it was a rollercoaster of emotions with many goals scored and missed, acts of heroism and selfishness coupled with sublime skills executed at breathtaking speed with no energies spared at either side.
The Italians regained the lead again with Antonio and Ulrico who scored from his half only for Hossam to draw again for ROW. Luca shaved the bar with a thunderous header from a corner by Giancarlo rehearsed 24/7 during last few weeks. It was Leo again to send the crowd wild and put again Italians in front but the excitement fell short when Julian equalised.
Only the golden goal could now separate the two teams in a game that could have gone on for weeks without a winner. It was Jeremy, who else, that converted a beautiful pass from Philipp to declare ROW victorious.
Italians showed dejection and pride at one time sensing they had victory in their hands but bitterly snatched away: yet convinced it is only one week away.
Jeremy T was the star of the show but somehow surprisingly the voters handed the Man of the Match award to Philipp: his left foot was at the epicentre of every ROW play dictating the tempo of the pulsating bibbed heart, feeding constantly his teammates with pinpointed penetrating passes that only begged conversion. The choice was validated by Joachim Low spotted on the stands taking notes and muttering:’ why did I ever pick Toni Kroos ?’
ITALY-REST OF THE WORLD 4-5
GOALS:
ITALY: Leo (2), Antonio, Ulrico
ROW: Jeremy T (3), Hossam, Julien
TEAMS
ITALY: Federico, Giancarlo,Ulrico, Luca, Leo, Giacomo, Antonio, Francesco
ROW: Hossam, Andre’, Ben, Philipp, Diego, Sara, Julien, Jeremy T.