"No one would have expected us to be here at this point. No one. Everyone expected us to be at the bottom of the table" captain Elmar Jacobs said on Monday afternoon. "But here we are after three matches sitting in second, defeating the top team in the group and the only team without a loss. There's still a long way to go, but we are happy with how we've performed so far."
Few gave MFC Judge a chance in their Sunday match, as the boys faced off againts the formidable Park Street Maple FC. The club is managed by the legendary Tagerd, currently sits in first in Silver League 4, and won the Silver League in Alpha 0.2. Led by an outstanding performance by keeper Áron Kókai - who had five saves in the match - and a 75th minute goal from striker Isidro Sarmiento, however, MFC Judge shocked the metaverse and came out of the match with a draw. Of his game-tying goal, Sarmiento had this to say:
"Santos played me a great ball. I knew our backs were against the wall, so I knew what I had to do - and I did it. Áron is the real star though.. We wouldn't have been in the match without him standing on his head like he did."
As good as Sunday's match was, however, Monday's match was even better. The match occurred under difficult circumstances, though, as the entire press-corps was still recovering from the food poisoning they got Sunday night - a poisoning that is the reason the Newsroom was silent yesterday. Still, with bottles of Pepto Bismol in tow the press pressed forward and covered what was a glorious match.
Facing Gold League side SCA Grande Île - managed by Fantasy Gaffer, another MFL legend - few prognosticators gave the humble side from Deventer a chance. After 16 minutes, it looked like the prognosticators were right, as Edmund Marko ran free in the box off a corner and smashed it home to give the favorites the lead.
MFC Judge's formidable strike duo of Jacobs and Sarmiento had other things to say, however. After nearly forty minutes of a stalemate, Jacobs scored to level the score at a goal a piece. Just seconds later, also in the 56th minute, Sarmiento would give MFC Judge the lead - and Bailiff von Bailiff and the rest of the DG Gavelers a reason to cheer. Not content with just a one goal victory, Jacobs would score again in the 83rd minute to make the score 3-1. That is how the match would end, with the underdog MFC Judge pulling off the upset and picking up all three points.
WIth the second half of group stage matches left to go, making it out of the group is now a concrete possibility for MFC Judge. Whether or not that happens is up in the air, but what is certain is that the club has exceeded expectations thus far.
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