Referat: Fröjdens Legends vs Fröjdens All Stars

It was time for the second intra Fröjdens match of this Corona hit season and both the teams were raring to have a go at each other with all their might and energy with the previous encounter ending with a high scoring 6-6 finish. Babben hooked us up with an Allsvenska referee for this match, while Coach Pedda came up with an ingenious way of dividing the teams based on the time they have been part of the immensely talented Fröjdens FK. We lined up as below for the bout:

Fröjdens Legends XI: Sävenek, Darko, Calle, Tenenbaum, Niclas, Pedda, Hansson, Schultze, Ludde, Mattsson and Stubin.

Fröjdens All Stars XI: Paschim, Babben, Isak, Tobbe, Sunken, Elias, Danske, Pope, Joakim, Flat, Andreas and Naser.

With Tenenbaum throwing in his usual pre-match banters at the newly recruited lot of the team, it was always going to be experience and composure vs shear rage and hunger for bragging rights. The game is under way and the old hogs make a steady start keeping possession and building up confidence which they never seemed to lack. 15 minutes into the game, Tenenbaum definitely justified himself with a Pirlo kind of assist over the defence line to Mange who without a second thought dribbles past a rather slow out of place Paschim to make it 1-0 to the Legends XI. The young boys try to get their act together with time but go down 2-0 in quick succession when Mattsson finishes off with a well-placed headed goal from a good cross from Calle. Going into half time with a 2-0 deficit, the All Stars had their work cut out and had to regroup as soon as one could in the cold 15 minutes even in the month of May.

Second half underway, the All Stars pickup from where they left off during the latter part of the first off. With a good amount of possession and confidence building up, captain Babben gifts himself a perfect birthday present with an assist to Andreas from the right flank to make it 2-1. Tenenbaum is found to be a little quiet at this point of time sensing a comeback from the rush of blood of the young goons. However, that advantage of the Legends XI was only made better by none other than probably the highest goalscorer at Fröjdens – Magnus Svantesson aka Mange Stubin who powers himself through Tobbe and Isak who share a combined height of close to 4m and probably 200kgs at least between them to make it 3-1 with his weaker foot. With all to play for now for the All Stars, some quick substitutions and with a lot of pressure on the back line of the opposition, Naser taps one in to make it 3-2 and make it an interesting last 20 minutes to go. With perseverance and will power, great men have conquered everything they wished for around the world and there was no less of that at Heden. With Darko going about with his killer instinct slide tackles and with the referee having forgotten his cards back home, the situation was not really helping the All Stars XI. However, a long ball intended for Andreas is deflected off the head of Pedda towards the goal to make it quite a simple finish for the equalizer from Andreas. A great game comes to a deadlock finish with the final score as 3-3 as the referee blows the final whistle. Another day of fun, football and love shared with this amazing team and as I look forward to witnessing and being part of many more of such games, stay in and stay safe for now. Forza Fröjdens! Forza Football!!

Erik Dahl