JUST BOUNCED AWAY....

Cypriot besiktas 6- Golden Codgers 1

Deus non irridetur. Quae enim seminaverit homo, haec et metet. You can't fool God. What a man sows that he will ripe.

The God of football did not show his benign face two days ago , when the Codgers faced the Cypriot Besiktas away from the comfortable home pitch of Sakarya. There -at the University pitch- the God of football could set his trap: he gave to the pitch surface the shape of an old rag, he turned the ball in a bouncing trap and seemed to laugh at the players by making the goal bigger for the opposition and smaller (the Codgers hit the bar for three times and missed four chances by inches) for the heroes. The titanic effort of our modern Ulysses ended up in a hopeless effort in the vagaries of a match which never looked as friendly. Only Ahmet- perhaps because the cream he put on repelled men as well as god- managed to tame the beast and scored one goal. But then the darkness fell upon the Codgers in the shape of 6 goals sounding as a well deserved punishment. Not even the great Can -who was playing his last match for the Codgers for he signed a contract with the professional MTG Magusa (good luck, we will always be your first fans!!!!)- could dispel the enchantment of the defeat casted upon the Codgers.
Will the spell ever be broken? Will the God of football be appeased with this defeat? Will the return to the well-known and friendly pitch of Sakarya be enough to be again victorious? Next thursday will bring with it the answer to all these questions....

THE TIME IS NOT OUT OF JOINT ANYMORE...

A long summer of despair and separation, of no ball bouncing on the grass, of waka-waka without Amin shooting or Ravi twinsting and turning is on the verge of being put behind our back. The Codgers are back; the news will elicit joy and envy on both side of the Atlantic, a proof of our growing success, if not as footballers, at least as foot-bohemiennes.

Good news is that the Codgers are still here and ready to play; old faces, old friends: some will be sitting on on their parkbench like bookbend far away from Cyprus (from Qatar to Connecticut); others will fly the flag of the Codgers entering the pitch with new streght and vigour. Once more unto the breach, my friends! Can "El Gato", Ahmet the "Padrino" Usta, Ersan and Ersoy "the lethal Twins", Amin "the Machine" Momeni, Luca "The Sultan" Zavagno and Ali "The Prince of Persia" Levjardipour, will do their best to have fun and to run after the ball with the passion of the long-lost boyhood. Indeed, to borrow a quote from the recent Nobel prize for Literature,Mario Vargas Losas, playing football is like "writing a book: for one hour or so are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories".

Long Life to the Codgers!!!!!