ICTP football reports

[Peter McGrath]

Dear friends,
Please excuse me for not having written for such a long time, but 
things have been a little difficult round here. The reason I am writing 
now, however, is that I have some excellent news to share with you.
But first the difficulties that I eluded to. I have to admit they were 
due to defensive frailties more than anything. But it wasn’t for want 
of trying. Since I last wrote to tell you of the ICTP football team’s 
third defeat of the season, three more defeats followed.
What can I say, except that the 7-3 turnover by U.TE was well deserved, 
the 4-5 loss to OGS was unfortunate – but at least showed that our 
strikers could score (Gabriele Pesco, Maintenance, in particular). 
Indeed, if I remember rightly, the ICTP boys were 5-0 down at half time 
in that game and came back strongly – but not quite strongly enough – 
to register the 5-4 score line. Then there was the game against our 
local rivals, SISSA. That  one also ended with a defeat by a single 
goal – despite the ICTP team playing the better football. If only the 
referee hadn’t disallowed a perfectly good goal by Manu Riwali (did I 
tell you he's from Papua New Guinea?). That would have been the opening 
goal of the game and would have forced SISSA to chase the game. 
Instead, SISSA were awarded the first goal and the ICTP lads played 
catch-up from then on. It ended 6-5.
All this left ICTP bottom of the league with no points from their first 
six games – and six points adrift of next-from-bottom SISSA.
I have to say, though, that even those dark days, it wasn’t all doom 
and gloom. Nay! Indeed, some of the ICTP players were getting 
individual recognition. The goalkeeper, Nino Coppola (TWAS), was rated 
second in the goalkeeper rankings, as decided by the referees, and both 
Juergen Kroger (Weather and Climate group) and Pesco were ranked among 
the top five of the tournament’s best players; Pesco’s presence in this 
list no doubt aided by his goalscoring abilities – he is also top 
scorer in the competition. In fact, strange as it may seem for a team 
with no points, but there are more ICTP players credited in these 'best 
player' lists than players from any other team. Strange!
But so much for the difficulties. They are in the past. And that is the 
source of the excellent news that I wish to share with you. Two games, 
two victories. Both albeit by slender margins, but wins are wins and 
points are points.
The first one was last week against LN CIB, a team from the Area 
Science Park. 1-0 down at half time, the ICTP team came out firing in 
the second half. A clever through ball by Pesco set Fred Kucharski 
(Weather and Climate group) through on goal and he was brought down by 
the CIB 'keeper. The referee awarded a penalty which Kroger duly 
despatched. A minute later and it was 2-1 to ICTP. Despite LN CIB 
threatening now and again, it was ICTP that had the better of the play, 
as they had against SISSA. This time they held on for a 5-4 win – the 
first of the season.
Then, another night, another victory. This time against LBM – a team 
that had beaten the ICTP boys 8-0 on the opening game of the season.
Again ICTP started slowly, going 2-0 down. But once 'capocannoniere' 
Pesco found his range, a positive result was inevitable. Five more 
goals for the competition’s top scorer (plus another by Sam Carr 
(Physics postdoc) – his first goal for the team in three years' of 
trying), ensured the points again went to ICTP. 6-5 the final score.
As they say in England: "Football, it's a funny old game!"

Peter McGrath, PhD
Tel: +39 040 2240 571
Fax: +39 040 224 559
TWAS - the academy of sciences for the developing world
c/o The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,
Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy
http://www.twas.org

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