Perhaps it is inappropriate to resort to the title of one of the greatest romantic dramas of all times to describe this match, because it was definitely not romantic. It was however quite dramatic to see how the Mucche Pazze threw away a game they should have never lost. And wind there was also plenty, which threatened to carry away my scrap paper several times. But in the end all important data was recorded and kept, and we can venture out to reconstruct the evolution of this unnecessary defeat.
It all looked so good in the beginning. The game started off with an opportunity to score for Sara in the very first minute, but the goalie prevented an early goal. The Mojito girls, who were playing in celeste like the Roman barbarians of last week, seemed quite unfocused in the first couple of minutes and hardly managed to put a coherent attack together. Therefore it was no coincidence that the Mad Cows had the better chances to score, especially Alessia, who in one situation managed to put the ball past the empty goal from inside the box.
This missed Mucche chance turned out to be the wakeup call for the Mojitos, who immediately after that hit the post, and two minutes later they scored the 0-1. You will get an idea what I mean by “unnecessary defeat” when I mention that this goal resulted from a corner kick for the Mad Cows, which the opposition intercepted and turned into a deadly counter attack. A few seconds later the same thing almost happened again when the Mucche lost the ball from kickoff, but their striker could not control the ball.
The Mucche misters sensed that the game was taking a dangerous direction and wisely took a timeout. This had no immediate effect, as back on the pitch the opposition launched two other dangerous attacks. It was only after the Mojitos took a timeout that the Mucche game picked up momentum. The spectators witnessed a three-minute madness. First, Lisa kept calm in a one-to-one situation in front of the goalie and put the ball away to level the game. This equalizing goal was followed by the most beautiful play of the night. Sara got the ball in midfield and played a wonderful forward pass into empty space that reminded me of the good old days when legendary (for me, anyway) midfielder Uwe Bein was still playing for Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1990s, when the team was playing what was labeled “Football 2000” at the time – mind you that in the actual year 2000 they were relegated. But I’m digressing. Amy outpaced the defender on the wing, ran into space, got the ball and put it away with a crisp shot to make it 2-1.
The game had turned, one was tempted to believe. But there’s still the leitmotif of this report: gone with the wind. As quickly as the Mucche had gained the lead, they gave it away again. If you can score two goals in two minutes, why not concede one in the third minute. And so they did. 2-2, immediately after kickoff. And then it was only thanks to a great reflex by Elena that the game went into half time with this result.
Back after the break, Elena had to save the day again, stealing the ball from the Mojito attacker’s foot in the last moment. Yet the Mad Cows managed to keep the pressure up, and after Costy hammered the ball against the post, Lisa put the rebounding ball away like Castillo did two weeks ago for Fiorentina against Bari (the team he was sold to the week after). But as you might have guessed by now, this lead did not last very long, and soon enough the Mojitos finished another one of their fast attacks to make the score 3-3. A misunderstanding in the Mucche defense gave them the opportunity to score again two minutes later, and they did – 3-4!
Gone was the lead, and it never came back. From that point on, the Mojito girls looked like they had taken an extra portion of mint that gave them some special powers. And of course the Mucche made it way to easy for them. They failed to put the opposition under pressure in their own half, which resulted in one Mojito attack after the other. A couple of good saves by Elena prevented the worst for a while, but eventually she was also powerless against a shot from the edge of the box that made it 3-5.
A last glimmer of hope was raised when Sara had another good run on the wing and put the ball in the middle, where Laura was all alone against the goalie. Unfortunately she did not capitalize on this last occasion to turn the match around yet again. It was the last noteworthy action by the Mucche. The rest is Mojito attacks, one of which led to the 3-6, again facilitated by blunders in the Mad Cows’ defense.
The good news is that Mister Mark Jones of the Squadra Fantastica did not fulfill his promise to bring along the whole team to “watch and learn” (in fact he did bring them to the U.S. Settignanese grounds tonight, but to play their own match). They already know how to give away a game that you should win, given that you take the lead twice. The Mucche Pazze are able to do this too, as we learnt tonight. I just hope they won’t make a habit of it. If we get to see more moves like Sara’s “Zuckerpass” (as we say in German) for Amy, there should in fact be reason to be looking forward to the next couple of weeks.
Jannis
The squad: Elena – Costy – Alessia – Laura – Amy (1) – Lisa (2) – Sara
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