The day every dog, and his cousin, rushed into the game
You probably know the expression ‘every dog and his cousin’, don’t you? Well, yesterday was the day when both the Orange and Colours resorted to such extreme measure to prevail in a super tight game with still clean sheets at both ends at the half hour.
The transfer market half just closed on Thursday February 1st at 11pm and the only way to strengthen the squad was to extend the boundaries.
So when two dogs (see pic with the Orange one performing a bicycle kick) approached the pitch fully equipped the two captains lost no time to claim ownership. The squad allocation was already decided by the triple A (Animal Algorithm Allocation) and the two dogs were both deployed on the opposite flanks to get the most out of their speed.
Arguably the dog with the Orange bib, a rare double ambidextrous, was a better bargain: as soon after he stepped his team took the lead with a deadly shot from Victor. For the records a post match double DNA test confirmed the two dogs were cousins, fully justifying the saying ‘every dog and his cousin’!
The ice breaker somehow dented the Colours’ confidence, supreme until then as they somehow managed to contain the Orange who had an extra man in their ranks. And that man was no less than Yousuf, back in the game after a while. He positioned himself right behind the strikers and was a constant thorn in the Colours’ defence. He went on to score a hat trick, no mean feature, one of which was a beauty with Yousuf dribbling everyone around him.
But this in itself did not kill the game as his counterpart on the Colours’ side was Diego who proved unstoppable and was unlucky not to score even more.
The Orange defence had to sit tight and regroup around Hannes to be able to keep the lead. Andre’ with his constant run ups on the right side, overlapping with Thomas, provided a welcome relieve while supplying the Orange attach with much needed ammunitions. But the man who did most of the work was Yassin who was seen incessantly to steal a ball in defence, carry it through midfield with vertical dribbles into opposition box and fire home twice from there. The added contribution by Nizard made sure that the Orange had enough cushion at the final whistle despite the goals by Andrea M and Julien for the Colours’.
As for the Man of the Match award, 29th hours after the match the two final contestants, Yousuf and Diego, could still not be separated as every single vote on one was matched soon after by the other. Unprecedented!
Finally an amicable agreement was reached: as both scored a hat trick as well, rather than cut the ball and the MOTM trophy in two, a coin was tossed up and Diego took the ball while Yousuf brought home the coveted accolade. One for you, one for me.
A final note: we have started our campaign to fund our 20th Anniversary, few people have already stepped up offering generous contributions in various forms (sponsorship, gadgets, cash): the sooner we have the budget, the better we know what we can afford.
Among the new initiatives we had the first funding dinner where a FD cooks at his place and charges the other FDs a value for money amount which goes entirely (this time 400£) in the FDs account to fund the event. Other than the money, it was a lot of fun and a nice way to strengthen the bond.
ORANGE-COLOURS 7-5
GOALS
ORANGE: Victor, Yousef (3), Yassin (2), Nizard,
COLOURS: Diego D (3), Andrea M, Julien
TEAMS
ORANGE: Paride, Andre’, Hannes, Giancarlo, Yassin, Thomas, Yousef, Nizard, Victor
COLOURS: Alessandro, Andrea M, Julien, Mohammad, Bijen, Dario D, Diego, Francesco.