When defence is best attack
The early striking feature of the day was the abundance of goalkeepers: not only all the three role models, Paride, Alessandro and Tony L, reported for duty but also Hannes played in goal for most of the game.
Tony L immediately looked the part: he sent out loud and clear the message that his absence if any improved his skills: on a surgically angled low shot he went down in no time to parry it away and later left his guardian role to Hannes who pulled a muscle while sprinting. Fans feared the worst but thanks to a magical cream (see pic) he was able to play in goal for the Colours while Tony L made the most of his chance to impress like an outside player by even scoring a goal.
The match was very balanced to the very end with always the narrowest of margin separating the contenders. The Colours’ game was somewhat more fluent at the start, relying on a very experienced defence, dynamic midfield and dangerous attack. Young Arman was back in the game showing no reverence to the elder opponents and scoring a brace. He is now the kind of players many bookmakers are happy to put money on him to score in any game.
Alex was on a licence to kill and ended up with a brace putting Colours in front but on the opposite front Oliviero did even better with four, one of which was his trademark goal, coming from the left, cutting inside and curling the ball into the opposite top corner. Interestingly both Alex and Oliviero played with soft-studded boots in a very mudded pitch. The CLUB is now worried that any Premier League could come with a brand new pair of hard-studded shoes and sign them up…
What also helped tilting the balance in favour of Orange was Jonathan prolific performance crowned with a hat trick despite not playing as a stricker. That must have inspired his son, Joshua, on the opposite front: from a corner he imperiously headed the ball just under the bar for a spectacular goal.
As the clock was ticking with the score at 9-9 the Colours were pressuring the Orange who manage to counter with Giancarlo crossing a high ball that Federico headed into the top corner for a fantastic winner. Shortly after Oliviero further legitimised the victory with an opportunistic tap in.
Just by looking at the number of hat tricks there was no certainly a shortage of candidates for the Man of the Match and the resulting votes were in fact spread among few obvious names. But, surprisingly only to the superficial spectator, the accolade went to Bijan who this time was labelled ‘the sung hero’.
In fact his performance was spot on, especially from a tactical point of view. With the Orange team so attack-minded it was Bijan who held the key of both defence and midfield, blocking most of the Colours’ attack and always initiating the counter with the right pass to the best positioned mate then providing ammunition to a very prolific attack. For once today the best attack was defence.
ORANGE-COLOURS 11-9
GOALS
ORANGE: Oliviero (4), Jonathan (3), Yuness (2), Joshua, Federico T
COLOURS: Alex (3), Arman (2), Johannes, Tony L, Paride, Nadir
TEAMS
ORANGE: Alessandro, Bijan, Joshua, Yuness, Federico, Jonathan, Giancarlo, Oliviero
COLOURS: Tony L, Hannes, Hossam, Paride, Johannes, Alex, Nadir, Arman, Francesco