When hockey meets football
Football Dads are always up for new experiences. After last week’s remarkable match on ice, it was time for a match played on snow. A first for the majority of players, although not for Thomas, who pointed up he often did that in his youth. Our resourceful Bavarian used to spend winters as a ski instructor and summers as a tennis pro. No surprise he is now one of the fittest in his generation. How exactly he turned out to work in insurance is a different story, and remains a mystery.
Playing on snow presents different challenges. The first one is that the World Cup white ball is not very visible. An order to Nike to urgently provide orange balls was issued but ultimately it was decided that with such a ball the Orange team would have had an unfair advantage.
Another challenge had to do with planting the posts. Under the snow, a thick layer of solid ice made it a very hard task. Thomas’ suggestion of using a drill was fascinating but not practical, as no one had though of bringing a drill. Luckily, Alessandro was able to put the red posts in position, albeit precariously, using advanced skills learned during his PhD in engineering. Orange bibs were put on the base to increase their visibility, and it was game on.
The Colours team was composed by four veterans (Francesco, Alessandro, Thomas, Johannes) and a new recruit, Diego from Bahia in Brazil, in vacation in London.
Diego was walking on the park with his wife and he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a bunch of people playing on snow, something unthinkable in Bahia, where the temperature never goes below 22 degrees. It took him few seconds to wave goodbye to his wife and join the match, where he showed excellent skills and even managed to score the first goal, an impressive feat for a rookie.
The very young Orange team (Giacomo, Yuv..,) pictured below, also found an unexpected fifth player in rookie Oliver, from China, another passer-by so mesmerised by our football to volunteer (should we say beg?) to play.
Lacking proper boots, Oliver slid on the snow in a couple of occasions, but he showed remarkable ball control skills and had a solid game. Most importantly, he promised to be back next Saturday with a more appropriate gear.
The match was nothing short of spectacular. Colours team took an early lead with Diego’s goal and manage to stay ahead for the whole match, despite fierce opposition.
There was the usual tension between Francesco and Johannes, with the latter complaining when the former doesn’t return the ball to him. At some point, Francesco scored a magnificent goal from the right side. Rather than complimenting him, Johannes complained that he should not have tried to shoot from that angle. Talk about team chemistry!
But it was a good and useful tension, as proven later when the two scored the decisive goal with a perfect one-two: playing in a central position just outside the box Francesco pretended to shoot and instead gave the ball to Johannes on the left; the German went deep and crossed the ball back with a perfect low-driven shot for Francesco to tap-in in goal.
Few penalties were awarded on both sides for hand foul, following a decision to play the match without goalkeepers. Considering the snow and the small goals, Thomas insisted that we should play “hockey style” penalties, with the player moving with the ball towards the goalkeeper. Something similar to the “true shoot-outs” tried in the US in the 90s, when the player started from 35 yards from goal and had 5 seconds to score, dribbling the goalkeeper. In any case, the lack of hockey experience was evident, as none of these penalties was scored, and the novelty was dismissed by commentators as dated and inappropriate.
We did things a little differently in 1996…👀 pic.twitter.com/iV3BjpB378
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) January 25, 2020
Following last week’s injury, which result in a fractured rib, Julien could not play, but he didn’t want to miss the show and watched from the stands, encouraging the fellow Dads. The Frenchman left before the final whistle, so he couldn’t see the Golden Goal scored by the Oranges, offering them a well deserved redemption.
Echoes of the match reached Doha, where all players have been avidly awaiting to hear the latest. “What a performance” tweeted Leo Messi after watching the highlights, “I have some unfinished business in Qatar but once done with the World Cup I will focus all my effort to get the last trophy I really miss, the Master Game.”