Line-up: Eyssartier, Guarnaccia, Manfellotto, Rossi, Belalij, Henriquez, Friedrichs, Legere (Claudino), Si M’Hammed, Deschamps, O’Connor (Mineo; Puig)

September…. perhaps the most depressing month of the year. It is in fact the month when Summer ends, when everybody comes back from vacation (including Lo Presti), when schools start again in Southern Europe, when teenagers in Northern Italy go back to their "winter girlfriends” because German and Dutch girls go back to their home country after a lovely Summer at the Garda lake.

Recently, September has become a depressing month also because RBBFC2 seems to be unable to collect points for the title in this month. Similarly to 2016, also in 2017 RBBFC2 has started the season with 2 defeats. Aware of these facts, the team gathers for the third game of the season 2017/2018 with only one goal: win.

To this end El Capitano recruits a well experienced striker, Gavin O’Connor, and confirms as a goalie Romain "No Romain no cry” Eyssartier. El Capitano is also concerned about the amount of goals conceded recently by the team. To address this problem he experiments for the first time the "difesa tricolore” with "nonno” Guarnaccia (green), Manfellotto (white) and Rossi (of course red). If Italy is the common denominator for the defense, Morocco is the one for the wings with our Belgian/Moroccan Tarik "I can run easily 35k in one game” on the left and Mustapha "catch the ball if you can” Belalij on the right. To go back to our winning path, experience is what we need in midfield. This is why on the sides of El Guerrero Friedrichs, RBBFC2 starts the game with Henriquez and Legere (I am not gonna make any jokes about their age otherwise Legere leaves training again). Charlie "I am the only one allowed to score” Dechamps teams up with O’Connor upfront.

The game starts under the supervision of the strictest referee seen so far in ABSSA. Touching the opponent is not allowed, talking to the referee is not allowed, telling him that the captain can speak to him is not allowed, calling offside is not allowed, looking at him is not allowed, looking somewhere else when he wants to shake your hand is not allowed.

The first half is boring for the huge crowd present at the Stadium (5 people in total) but very intense on the pitch. The two teams do not create many chances but intensity is relatively high. Maybe too high for Legere… after 10 minutes he is out for an injury. Claudino comes in. Intensity continues to be high and another senior player gets injured… O’Connor. Mineo comes in after 18 months out and 10 kilos more. First half ends. 0-0. The most memorable thing happened in the first half is Deschamps very calm reaction to O’Connor’s comment after a misunderstanding "f***k you, it’s your fault!!!”.

RBBFC2 starts the second half with a completely new approach: we need to get the 3 points. Apache Mineo and Deschamps immediately reconnect and it seems to be back by two seasons when together they led the team to win the championship. Thanks to them after 10 minutes RBBFC2 is leading 1-0. Deschamps finds himself one on one with the opponent goalie. Easy, maybe too easy for him.

The team does not stop attacking and creates quite a number of chances to score the second one. However, it is not easy to control and touch the ball properly on this pitch and unfortunately these chances get wasted.

"Gol sbagliato, gol subito” (missed goal, conceded goal) is a certainty in Italian football. Unfortunately this applies also in Belgium. After an amazing save on a free kick by Eyssaetr, the opponents find the way to equalize at the very last moment with a superb long shot goal impossible to save. 1-1.

The last five minutes are a desperate attempt to get the three points by RBBFC2. El Capitano comes in replacing an exhausted Mineo to try the "last assault”. Not enough, the game ends. 1-1 the final score.

RBBFC2 deserved to win a game that they were not able to kill when leading 1-0. The team performance has been better than previous game and the chance to demonstrate the quality of the team will come next Saturday. Anyway, as El Capitano (inspired by Vujidin Boskov) says at the end of the game "one point is better than 0”. Claudino fairly points out that "1 point is however less than 3”. We have two serious candidates for the next Nobel prizes.

Reporter and MoM: Simone "The Priest” Rossi