Dear Luino, we’re here now, the day has come. Have you armed yourself with courage, determination and zero regrets? These could be the useful ingredients to win a final, you know I’ve seen many, experienced just as many, but every time it’s different for me too. But you feel good, come on, it must be age, and I want to reveal a secret to you: there are no secrets. Yes, that’s right, the only “secret” is to live it. With a smile on your face, with your heart in your throat, with your legs shaking a little, with a look that is worth a thousand words. Trust what I tell you, I’m old, wisdom is my best friend.
Look back Luino, did you see where you got to? Would you ever have said that? In August, when the sun was hot, and the coach made you do uphill repeats. And in April a year ago, when until the last day you were still playing for your survival. But even before, at the beginning of that championship, when you were last in the standings, when the expectations were different, when the ball didn’t want to go in and everyone gave you up for lost. Now everything has changed, the sun has risen.
Then everyone believes that the final lasts ninety minutes. It’s a lie Luino, you know? The final has already started. At least since Tuesday, when you found yourself on the pitch with the coach, his thousand schemes, the weight of 30 days of championship on your back, when the captain scolded you for a wrong pass, when the striker stopped to take free kicks even after training, and then everyone eats. It was already the end of Thursday, also a holiday, when you grumbled to your girlfriend because she wanted to go to the beach on the Ponte while you had to train, when the sporting director came to give you some energy, when you thought that the coach had already squeezed you enough in the ‘training before and managed to do worse.
And it’s already final even today, when there are just over 24 hours left and you can’t wait. When you’ve filled your day with a thousand things just to not think, when tonight is an easy evening because tomorrow is tomorrow, just a pizza with your old friends and then home. And the TV will be the background to your thoughts, and on WhatsApp someone will send the usual memes to dampen the tension, and then it will be a battle with the night, and you won’t sleep. And in the morning it will be a concert of butterflies in the stomach until the meeting, then the competition will start to see who can hide the tension best. From the locker room to the kick-off, and then to the final whistle, it will be a long straight road, all the way to the finish line.
How do I know all these things? But why, didn’t you recognize me? Yet we have known each other our whole lives. Since your grandfather took you to training and you were a little girl, since your mother cooked you a tart before the match, since there was no “disco” on Saturday evening because the game is on Sunday, since you gritted your teeth because your ankle was tormenting you but you didn’t want to tell the coach… you wanted to play, you wanted you and me to be one. Well, we are one because everything that I have given you in these years, you have always returned to me with interest, and I am sure, very sure, that tomorrow will be like this too.
Be happy Luino, regardless of everything, it will be a beautiful day, and you and I will remember it forever. Forever. And then I’m sure that your entire province is rooting for you.
Good luck Luino, have fun and let us have fun. Ah, one last thing: those who believe dream, but only those who dare win. Don’t forget it.
Signed: the most beautiful game in the world
The voices of the protagonists
Alessandro Giallonardo (coach Luino): “Yes, we are ready and it couldn’t be otherwise, it’s normal for there to be a bit of anxiety, but after a year like this and a path like this, I’m now aware that I have a mature team. We have prepared this final down to the smallest detail because, especially in such an important event, they can make a positive and negative difference, then of course the ball is round and anything can happen, but I am certain of one thing: these guys will give their soul“. “For some of them – continues the technician – it is the most important match of their career, but to be honest it is also the most important match of my career as a coach, for Luino, however, it is a historic event, in our eyes we still have the frame of the crowd that helped us in the semi-final to conquer this last act, we want to play a great match for them too“. In the end: “Football sometimes gives you signs, my adventure with this group began in Somma and it was in Somma that we closed the championship last Sunday, if I think about everything that happened in between it seems incredible, last year we were there save ourselves until the last day and look at where we are today, in the presence of a very tough match that we will play openly, trying to propose our football, we have grown and when I say we are I am talking about everyone, including myself, we have grown together and we cultivate the same dream, we hope to be able to make it come true“.
Marco Cracas (Luino sports director): “As a player I have always had a good relationship with the Cups, in Gavirate in Eccellenza I scored in the 117th minute of an incredible final, that trophy still shines there on the board, as sporting director I hope to have as many satisfactions, this is a unique opportunity, with a particular charm, you play the finals to win them, it’s normal, but the only thing I ask the boys is to leave the field without regrets, there are no calculations to do in a one-off match, there is “only” to give your soul“. Then he adds: “Four years ago I arrived in Luino and I immediately said that I had a dream, to bring this team back to Promotion, they called me crazy, but today we are playing for it and if we are here it is thanks to all those who have put a brick, like mister Iori, like the boys who wore this shirt and who still write to me today, support us, knowing that they have beautiful memories of Luino is worth more than many victories, a bit like that semi-final a month ago, “Cracas, look at what you did it, we had never seen something like this here”, they told me… it will carry it inside me forever“.
Salvatore Testa (captain Luino): “The time has come, we’ve waited a long time and now it’s our turn, all I know is that we will have great respect for our opponent, as much as they will have for us, and that our heads will do the rest. Everything counts, for goodness sake, the preparation for the match, the desire, the physical condition, but the difference will be the head, the mentality must be the right one, that of a team ready to have fun but that wants to make a splash“. “We don’t know Badalasco, we have collected some information and they will have done the same, but honestly I prefer to look at my home, we have many weapons, many solutions, we must make the most of them“. “In modern football, whoever risks the most wins – the captain said in conclusion – Luino must have courage and personality, I will also put Luino’s pride into it, being my town it’s worth double to meor”.
Lorenzo Lercara (attack Luino): “The match of the year arrives, a match that symbolizes how positive our journey has been, we are happy with this season and now we must try to close it in the best possible way, I don’t know if it will be a final played openly or like many finals played a bit in anticipation, but I know how well we prepared it and I will do everything I can to help my teammates, I hope to be 100% because unfortunately in the last month it hasn’t been like that, and I’m really sorry not having been able to give my contribution, this is an achievement that the club deserves but most of all those 5/6 guys who have been here for a long time, who have given so much to this shirt, deserve it, we have the right cards and the quality in squad to play a great match.”
Appointment at 3.30 pm in Pozzuolo Martesana for the Lombardy Cup final Luino – Badalasco. If at the end of 90 minutes the result remains equal, two regular halves of 15 minutes will be played; in the event of a further tie, penalties will be taken.
Mariella Lamonica
