Super Eagles legend, Austin Okocha, was in Florida on Friday to honour a legends’ game organised by former teammate, Ronaldinho, and again reminded fans of his mesmerising skills.
Tagged ‘The Beautiful Game’ the second edition of the exhibition game in Orlando City was a reunion of former stars and current players and an assortment of other celebrities at Exploria Stadium.
The teams were captained by Brazilians Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos with Nigeria’s Okocha filing out alongside the great Ronaldinho in midfield.
The former Nigerian captain opened the scoring in an exciting game which was disrupted by a tropical downpour as well as a procession of young fans who took advantage of the slow momentum to interrupt the game by running onto the pitch in search of a selfie with one or more of their footballing idols.
Just like the first edition last year, it looked like fans were set to witness another absurdly high scoreline on Friday when Cafu hit the crossbar with just minutes played before Jay-Jay Okocha opened the scoring for Ronaldinho’s team after bamboozling the defence with some trademark footwork before poking a finish past Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita.
Five minutes later, Rivaldo equalised for Team Roberto Carlos (Team RC3) with a shot from distance that beat Team R10 goalkeeper Dida.
Patrick Kluivert restored the lead for Ronaldinho’s team in the 25th minute, scoring after taking a nice pass from Real Madrid winger Vinicuis Jr.
With Okocha and Ronaldinho combining effectively in midfield, Team R10 were unstoppable and had a third goal when Cafu drew Higuita off his line and chipped him to make it 3-1.
Four minutes later, Nani and Willian combined to set-up Lucas Moura to pull one back for Team RC3 but that wasn’t all for the first half as Vinicuis Jr. scored with a chip to seal a 4-2 first half win for Ronaldinho’s team.
Roberto Carlo’s team did pull one back before the game lost its spark just after the hour mark as Okocha and other big names were substituted plus the countless interceptions by pitch invaders.
The invasion of fans and the downpour ensured the game ended prematurely with scores at 4-3, victory for the Jay Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho inspired team R10.
