Solis, Makara 8, 2077, m249

In their Week 3 match, the Immortals legend, Uday Lanka was born, scoring a phenomenal 4 goals to embarrass the Titans.

In their Week 10 rematch, it was the Titans’ Readale Nash (the Cash) who provided redemption with two goals to lead the team to victory.

In Week 17, who would win the rubber match?

Any advantage to playing at Amrita’s home field would soon be nullified as dread spread throughout the colony that the Lanka Legend would be a scratch for their match. An injury suffered in last week’s match against Wuji helped explain why his presence was virtually non-existent that match.

“I tried to play through it but I just couldn’t get anything going that match”, said Lanka. “The next day, I couldn’t even get up so I knew something was up.”

And with Lanka absent, the Titans could smell blood early.

At the 19th minute, the Titan’s Readale Nash glided past defender Tanigawa Kata and lifted the ball over goalkeeper Chamunda Badal into the bottom-right corner to open up the scoring.

The Immortals responded five minutes later as midfielder Ronald Donovan passed over to teammate Tulaiha Azizi to tap in a shot past a baffled Icilio De Sisto for the equalizer.

But De Sisto would get his revenge.

At the 31st minute, as the Titans took a corner from the Immortals area, the Titans goalkeeper suddenly left his own box and raced forward!

As the Immortals and Titans players bounced the ball around, De Sisto was able to get to the loose ball, and with his back to the goal, launched himself into the air to curl a spectacular shot into the top corner over a stunned and confused Immortals team for the eventual winner!

“I’ve never seen a play like that in my life,” said Immortals manager Andam Mirza. “Hats off to them for their innovation. That took a lot of balls to pull off.”

“I was at full charge on boosts”, said De Sisto, “Raenia (Ware) and Paul (Salgado) felt we needed to try something different with our offence; the opportunity presented itself today.  I felt like I was channeling a bit of Barnato.”

“If Lanka was playing, we would have beaten the Titans just like we did in Week 3” said outspoken Immortals owner Vijya Pandey. “In yesterday’s match, I saw the Wuji mug Dong Ji players all game just like they abused Lanka last week. The league should step in and take action”.

For the Titans, this was a strong response to their loss against the Dynamos last week.  Some critics claim the Titans have peaked and will be in decline into the playoffs.

“Pandey and critics can say what they like”, said Ware. “We play one game at a time and this round, we won.”