The return of the heavy hitters
It was the day two of the fans’ darlings reported back for duty after a long absence dating back to the MGA: no less than Hossam and Daoud.
Most of the people on the stands went on the phone urging their mates to rush not to miss the match, only to find out there were no seats available.
No team could afford to hire them together so Hossam ended up playing with the Colours while Daoud led the Orange attack.
Since the very first minute it looked like both players had done nothing but to play football every day during their absence such was the fluency and authority of their game.
The balancing act in assembling the teams was made difficult by the scarcity value attached to the only goalkeeper available today: the Colours were the fastest to dig deep to hire Alessandro’s services in goal.
Both team had game changers in any compartment and it was very difficult to figure out who would have prevailed and where.
What stood out in the very first few minutes was the Colours’ frontline who moved seamlessly across the pitch often interchanging each other and giving the Orange defence no reference point.
Nizar was able to shield the ball attracting defenders before releasing it to the advantage of Ishan and Diego F who had a field day in front of the Orange goal guarded with apprehension by the rotating goalkeepers.
It sounds like Colours’ attack had a nice time but, make no mistake, with Massimo and Chetan at the centre of the Orange defence no opposition was in for a walk in the park.
The De Court couple made by Andre’ and Arkady was strategically placed on the right side and it did the job like clockwork while the centre-left pitch was exclusive domain of Hossam and Alex B whit the latter adding a bit of Greek flair to the game.
Colours had ammunitions to spare as in midfield Yassin and Dario constantly delivered the goods, namely assists to the three ‘punteros’.
The same could not be said on the opposite front where the dots where somehow disjointed: despite the presence of players like Johannes and Alex A the supplies to Daoud where lacking consistency and incisiveness.
Ishan was the thorn in the Orange defence side and he gave, not for the first time, a full display of his scoring repertoire with a couple of headers and shots. His partner in crime was Diego operating as a falso nueve, in fact a true nine as he put the ball behind the keeper three times.
Such performance called for a harsh treatment by his markers and once he fell to the ground banging his head: the medical team was on the spot in no time treating what looked like a nasty concussion: to make sure he was was conscious Diego was asked a couple of questions, the first been: ‘do you remember the name, in alphabetical order, of every single FD and FK and their date of joining?’. Luckily Diego showed no hesitation and the game was resumed.
At one point Colours were up four goals: Daoud momentarily resuscitated the match by scoring twice but with Alessandro in goal a full remuntada was out of the question.
As always the golden goal was the only chance for the losing team to make something out of a miserable day. It only took a couple of minutes for Johannes to leave his mark on the game and give the Orange fans a decent start to their weekend.
Man of the Match was far from a forgone conclusion that if you have a prolific striker in the winning team that is the default choice. Defenders hardly grab headlines, let alone trophies but with a performance like today Hossam was fully reminiscent of what Cannavaro did (and grabbed) in the 2006 World Cup.
The votes counting was nails biting with Ishan and Hossam hedging over each other by no more than one vote at each count.
Ultimately Ishan, owing to the diverse beauty of his rich scoring, claimed the trophy. His ultimate test though will be with Hossam on the opposite side
Giancarlo Castelli
COLOURS-ORANGE 8-4
GOALS
COLOURS: Ishan (4), Diego (3), Nizard,
ORANGE: Daoud (2), Alex A, Johannes
TEAMS
COLOURS: Alessandro, Andre’, Hossam, Alex B, Arkady, Yassin, Diego, Dario, Ishan, Nizard
ORANGE: Thomas, Massimo, Chetan, Julien, Giancarlo, Andrea M, Johannes, Alex A, Daoud