Dave and Roberta, who both work for SYA in various roles, have a son, Daniel (see right, #11), who plays on the Montefiascone team. I would call the league these teams are in as semi-professional, comprised of players who are either on their way up in ranks (like Daniel) or on their way down, due to age or injury. As it happens, the players do not know for sure whether or not they start until right before the game starts. You can imagine that it's nerve-racking for the players but as I discovered it's nerve-racking for the parents of the players too. I saw a behavior in Roberta I do not see at school, a hyper-nervous, crowd-rallying, nail-biting, proud parent of a soccer player on the Montefiascone team.Daniel gets the nod. He's starting at left forward position. Roberta and Dave are beyond thrilled. It's actually very cute to see them in this light.
As Roberta and Dave described it to me, while this IS a darby, I wouldn't call it much of a rivaly when one of the teams, namely Viterbo, always wins. In fact, they have not lost a game the ENTIRE season, which began back in August. Montefiascone is sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of their record, so they are clearly the underdogs in this match-up. Apparently it is no secret that the owner of the Viterbo team went out and "bought" the best players in the league with the expectation they'd not only win the league and hoist the championship cup at season-end, but he is arrogant enough to think that his team is talented enough to win (or at least not lose) every game they play. Always a good strategy but not reality.
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| GOAL: 2-0 Montefiascone! |
But as history in ANY sport will tell you, every team is beatable on any given day. This day was one of those days. On a foggy, cold, and rainy fall Sunday afternoon in Montefiascone the team of the same name scored a goal about half-way through the first half while playing some incredible defense. Mo ntefiascone's goalkeeper had an amazing day, ala Jim Craig (1980 US Olympic Hockey goalkeeper vs. USSR). Within 2 minutes of the second half, Montefiascone scored again, with the whole play set up by Daniel. Without his pass (in between two Viterbese players) to his teammate, his teammate would have never had an open pass to the eventual goal scorer....an assist on the assist if you will. Dave (see above left) and Roberta were quite proud indeed!
Viterbo got a cheep goal with 15 minutes left to play but that's as close as they would get. It was a little tense on the last play of the game, as Viterbo had an open shot to the goal but the ball sailed over the goalpost. Final score: Montefiascone 2, Viterbo 1. Even their very organized cheering section (see left) couldn't will the ball in the goal.After the game, apparently the owner of the Viterbo team was so irate he told his players that they wouldn't see another paycheck until they won another game. With this loss they were 0-3-1 in their last four games, but still way out in front of everybody else in the league.
The outcome was significant, however, as it sent shockwaves throughout the league. Goliath looses to David in epic match, as the newspapers described it in the newspaper the next day......okay, so I'm getting a bit carried away. That was not the headline in Monday's newspaper but the game was, nevertheless, exciting for the Montefiascone-friendly crowd.
Update: Montefiascone kept up their winning ways with a 1-0 victory over the team currently in 2nd place in the league. Keep up the good work! In other news, Viterbo crushed their next opponent 6-2. I guess the players will see another game (and another paycheck)!
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