Playing football for the Squadra and let the legend continue

Yesterday was another great day to be Mister, but most of all to be part of this amazing thing that is IUE Calcio Squadra Fantastica. The Squadra won its first game of the season. And it did not only do so by scoring goals (end result: 6-2) but by immediately being a Squadra. The game may have just been a friendly game against our friends from Serpiolle, but it was an important test for the most fundamental thing of all: creating a sense of unity among people from different backgrounds, among old and new members, among people on and off the pitch. THis sense of unity, or I better call it, this Squadra feeling persisted throughout all 3 halfs of the game and the Squadra thus seems to be on the right path to start the league next Monday 13 October in a fascinating derby against Campo di Marte. Most importantly, it seems that this year we have a fantastic group of people willing to play football for the Squadra and let the legend continue.

Football-wise speaking, the signals from yesterday’s friendly game were also more than positive.

In the firts half IUE Calcio managed to score 4 goals and conceding only 1. The line-up was as follows:

Gatto De Angelis

Bjoern Bremer  – Coach Lundstedt  – Salvatore Denaro  – Dieter Reinisch

Reto Burgsisser  –  Alberto Il Pazzo

Gabriel Facchini  –  Diego Garzia  –  Coach Maurin

Bomber Martino

After the departure of Amico Rizzi, Gatto de Angelis has become with full right our second goalkeeper. Even though when joining the Squadra last year he announced that his presence on the pitch was going to be only ‘purely hypothetical’, he has developed his talents to such an extent that he is now absolutely worthy of defending the Squadra’s goal against any opponent. Yesterday he proved this again, with a couple of amazing saves. He conceded one goal, but that was, according to him, ‘due to a lack of experience’.

The defence was composed for 3/4 by newcomers, but they showed to be very confident in performing the Squadra’s tiki-taka football philosophy.  With Bjoern the Squadra has acquired a very energetic and generous right-back, always willing of receiving and playing the ball. The same goes for the left-back position, where Dieter played very confidently with tactical intelligence. Salvatore is a very experienced player, and so a security in the central defence.  Coach Lundstedt is still the blondest defender of the Squadra, no need to describe him further. The last ten minutes of the first half we also had Lian Allub coming in on the right-back position, and he continued also for 10 minutes also in the second half. A very valuable defender and the Misters hope to identify his ideal position soon.

The midfield was under the control of Reto Burgisser, a newcomer, and ALberto Il Pazzo, one of the most characteristic Squadra members. Alberto proved to be in great shape and was really the man making the difference in the first half: one goal, a couple of decisive assists and much more than that. Reto is the typical midfielder you want to have as a pillar of the team: smart, calm, and a great touch of the ball. On the sides there were our routiniers Gabriel Facchini and Coach Maurin: as long as they keep running there is no need to worry. Diego Garzia was our number 10 and he started the game like you would expect him to start: a goal in the first minute. If he can maintain a certain continuity of performance, he might be worthy of at least 15 goals throughout the season. Our Striker was Bomber Martino, strong and experienced as always. He scored a goal, of course, but is still on the way to reach his top condition.

In the second half we played with a total different line up:

Cosimo Bartoli

Lian Allub (Frank McNamara)  –  Jan Karremans –  Carl Emilio Lewis –  Jonas Draege

Ruben Reiker  –  Luis Rojas Duenas

Christopher Johnson  –  Riccarco Kaiser Kesta  –  Federico Ortu Valero

yes, him: Ciacci!!

 THe biggest surprise of this second line-up was beyond any doubt Carl Emilio Lewis: the name in itself is already legendary, but what a strong defender! A real force of nature. Now to challenge will be to channel all his brutal force in the direction that will lead us to the highest positions in the league, possibly the highest.

A negative surprise of this second half was Jonas injuring his arm, we are waiting for news from him..

On the midfield Ruben and Luis fought very well in order to keep control of the ball, and in this task they were very well helped by THe Kaiser, who, moreover, proved to be in great shape: won himself a penalty, shot it terribly but scored. On the wings Fede Ortu ( who scored the other goal) and Christopher Johnson were running like crazy, and as long as they kept running, the Squadra had nothing to worry about.

The second biggest surprise of this second half was Riccardo “stai zitto” CIacci playing striker with the legendary nr 9 shirt of EL Eternal. He proved the long-sighted vision of last year’s coach Neidhardt of letting him play as ‘falso’ to be of huge value: he was present on every ball reaching his territory and he will be good for some fundamental goals throughout the season, I can assure.

Then, last but not least, a word must be spent on the fantastic atmosphere on the bench: people that were injured, people that could not play or were unfortunately excluded from the list were all present to see their teammates doing what they will be doing soon: playing football for the Squadra and let the legend continue.

This all culminated in a great 3rd half at our much beloved sponsor Finnegan, where we sang the hymn hard and loud as usual. I could notice that some of the newcomers were a bit perplexed by this strange habit: don’t worry, you are going to get it fully soon, possibly after you’ve witnessed or contributed to the Squadra winning its first 3 points of the 2014/2015 season, this monday 13 october, against Campo di Marte..

After having applauded and admired the team yesterday, I have only one more thing to say, directly from my heart……

FORZA IUE!!!!!!