Football match report

Peter McGrath mcgrath at twas.org
Thu Feb 15 10:00:09 CET 2007


Three-star performance

TASC INFM are another of the two new teams in the competition, but 
their record of one win and one draw so far warned the ICTP players 
that a second consecutive victory over a newcomer was not to be a 
foregone conclusion.
Indeed, TASC started brightly, but with Juergen Kroeger (Weather and 
Climate Group) breaking up their midfield play and yours truly 
marshalling the defence behind him, chances for the opposition were few 
and far between. And – even in the absence of top-scorer Gabriele Pesco 
– ICTP slowly started putting their game together.
It wasn’t until well into the first half, however, that the deadlock 
was broken. Benjamin Tayo (Condensed Matter master’s student) dribbled 
the ball into the penalty area. Roberto Bertoli's (Administration) 
decoy run took a defender away from the goal-mouth and allowed Tayo to 
get his shot off. Unfortunately for the TASC goalkeeper, it was 
deflected past him and into the net. 1-0 – and that’s how it stayed 
until half time.
The second half started with more TASC pressure, but still goalkeeper 
Nino Coppola (TWAS) had little to do, with Baya Batsukh (Mongolian 
mathematician) snapping into tackles on the right side of the defence 
and Fred Kucharski (Weather and Climate Group) being his dependable 
self on the left.
But then a TASC striker managed to sneak behind the ICTP back line, the 
ball was slipped through to him, and he drove it under Coppola’s 
despairing dive for the equaliser.
The game now moved from end to end as both teams strived to gain the 
advantage. The match was set up for the Tayo show.
With just ten minutes to go, Tayo went on another mazy dribble into the 
TASC box, cut back inside and fired in his second goal of the night. 
With such a close game under way, the call went round to “keep it tight 
at the back”. We managed to do that, with Kroeger once again making 
important interceptions and tackles.
And then Tayo made the game safe with an exquisite goal. A hopeful 
clearance was headed towards the TASC sweeper until Tayo nipped in 
front of him and, without breaking his stride, used his heel to flick 
the ball over the sweeper’s head. When the ball came down, Tayo was 
there to control it in one touch and, with a second touch, steer it 
comfortably past the out-rushing keeper. 3-1 – and that’s how it ended.
Another sweet victory.


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

Disclaimer: http://www.twas.org/disclaimer



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