Certainly, we expected a few more familiar faces. In the end, among the many expected, there was only Bobo Maccoppi. Because he never says no to anything that contains the name “Como”. At the match of the old glories of the Como youth sector – played yesterday in Maslianico – he tries to always be there, still being able to count on a more than enviable physique. He was the “leader” in the match valid as the third “Sergio Gualdi-Nazzareno Tosetti” Memorial, included in the “Mino Favini-Giorgio Rustignoli” international tournament, which saw professional youth teams of the 2012 nine-man rookies category on the field for the first matches – Italian and foreign, including Como, Inter, Juventus and Empoli, but also Chiasso, Bellinzona and Dinamo Tbilisi – with the participation of Casatese’s amateurs, on the pitch with its 2011 players.
A tournament, organized by the Pirati Como association, which as clearly demonstrated by the titles of the various events for three years remember four key figures of the thriving youth sector of Como in the seventies, eighties and nineties. The idea is to bring together those who, in those fabulous years, grew up on the fields of Orsenigo with those masters.
And Maccoppi, whose experience as coach of Como Women will not continue, is always linked to that Como: «Wonderful years, in which we grew as players and above all as men. There, we learned everything. Como in Serie A? A great emotion, everything is there to do well.”
With him, on the pitch were Claudio Rusconi, Massimiliano Simone (son of the former mayor of Como), Walter Rimoldi, while Christian Boscolo was on the bench. Some Como fans were there to help organize the tournament by staging a six-on-six match played on the nine-a-side pitch of the Maslianico sports centre. Ritual photo in front of two historical banners, that of the Ram and the Comacini Masters and a cloth with the writing “Blue and… nothing else”. Result? 3-1 for the blue team captained by Maccoppi.
As a background to the match, the shouting of the kids on the pitch and of the many parents who packed the stands of the eleven-a-side pitch, which hosted the “Favini-Rustignoli” matches.
