More importantly, I discovered after the Vikings versus the Grasshoppers match on Tuesday evening that only half of the JIFL is actually receiving the Newsletter every week. I was in shock! How is it possible that only half of the participants are getting it and the other 50% are in the dark? I am blaming the Webmaster Nico Sanders for that. Apparently he is not aggressive enough in making sure that our beloved Newsletter is available for all. The entire world should be reading it. 
 

Additionally, I have to point the finger at the actual captains and managers of each JIFL team. It is your responsibility to make sure that each of your squad members knows that there is a website called the JIFL and knows that they can and should be receiving the most important News in history every week. It is an injustice that some of your players are unaware of the existence of such important and life changing available knowledge as is profoundly expounded each and every week here at JIFL.net. An outrage, sirs! Captains and Managers... you should be ashamed of yourselves for hiding the truth and trying to selfishly hoard the knowledge in order to maintain power over your minions. But, as usual, I have a solution: Just send your team email lists to Nico and then he can make sure that they are all subscribed up. Then everybody will be receiving the same information, updates, and etc. 'Knowledge is power,' Aristotle once said. And I believe that we must empower everybody. Lift up the world, Obama! And give us hope! 

Now, back to the cracking match on Wednesday night. I was at a meeting at the Cafe Creme at ISCI and was very fortunate to have heard the whistle blow and suddenly realized that a JIFL match was taking place upstairs. I immediately moved the meeting up to the grandstand and we watched a classic battle between two of the finest clubs in the JIFL. First of all, I must say that the Vikings are an excellent side this year with a good chemistry and combination of youth and experience. They play a most watchable brand of football which leaves it quite understandable why they are undefeated so far this season. Secondly, I have to also admire the youth development policy of the Grasshoppers. They had a fine display from their young French lads with plenty of speed and decent skill to boot. They reminded me of that dynamic young Arsenal side that crushed Wigan the other night. But, alas, this match didn't end up 3-0 like that one. This match ended 5-4 in favor of the Vikings!  It was a bonanza of fine goals from both teams. Like I said, 'a most watchable brand of football'. My old friend John Hargreaves was there (some of you may recall, he was one of the original members / founders of the Wanderers along with Mike Wildblood going back 15 years ago) and he couldn't believe the difference in quality that the league has evolved during the last 15 years. That was the first match that he has seen in more than a decade. 

And he kept commenting on the speed and tenaciousness of the Grasshoppers. They never gave up and kept coming back and putting those Vikings under pressure. There were two outstanding moments in this match that I simply must exaggerate about. The first was a free kick from at least 35 meters out by the player/manager of the Grasshoppers, Marc Giovanola (from now on referred to as 'Marc Gio'). It was such a rocket and traveling at such velocity that no goalkeeper in the world could have saved it. It was unbeatable at every level. And the next moment that was simply world class was when the greatest that ever was, Jan Gramm, got lobbed and the ball bounced over his head and was just inches from the goal line when he suddenly made a game-ending finger-flip over-the-head running-backwards save that was nothing short of spectacular and which preserved the Vikings victory and made my night. And not because I was favoring one team over the other. I wasn't. I just recognized what a fantastic save that was and it seems that only Marc Gio recognized the quality of that athletic moment as well. Keep in mind though that like Jan Gramm, Marc Gio is also a former professional player and goalkeeper as well. Sometimes it takes one to know one.

In other matches this week, the Wanderers beat Team Arario of Korea 7-0 and JIS beat the Mighty Lions 4-0 both on Wednesday evening. And finally it has to be mentioned that Team Arario of Korea who have struggled to catch up to the level of the league standard have finally broken through the glass ceiling and chalked up their first victory after two years of trying. On Sunday afternoon, Team Arario defeated the Mighty Lions 1-0 on a goal by their regular Man of the Match, leading goal scorer and young star Heo Ji Seob finally taking them off the bottom of the table and bringing joy and sunshine to their lives.  History has been made and I didn't even have to teach a lesson in this week's Newsletter.

See you live on the pitches...

-Your Hero