Men in Black

Yours Truly loved and still loves goalkeeper jerseys. When he was young, he would pester his parents into buying him goalkeeper jerseys, shorts and gloves, even though he could not dive or catch a ball properly (and not particularly tall to be of goalkeeper material either). One of his favourite pastimes in those days was to dive left and right, jump up and down in full goalkeeper gear on his parents’ bed while no one else was at home, imagining that he had just made some spectacular saves and was applauded by everyone in the stands.

Back in the 90s, Italian Serie A was the undisputed king and Yours Truly was deeply sucked into it. And he was particularly fond of all those goalkeepers clad in mostly black. Tall, lean and athletic, they were the coolest looking guys on earth for Yours Truly and they just looked amazing in those jerseys. There were many favourites for Yours Truly, not necessarily in terms of their goalkeeping ability, but how they looked in full gear, namely mostly black jerseys, black shorts, black socks and oversized white gloves:

Nello Cusin

Michelangelo Rampulla

Andrea Pazzagli

Fabrizio Ferron

Francesco Mancini

Marco Landucci

Sebastiano Rossi

Walter Zenga

Man, they looked like runway models on soccer pitches and Yours Truly spent many hours daydreaming of growing up to be as tall, lean and athletic as they were.

Sadly, that never materialised.

For goalkeepers clad in all black, Stefano Tacconi of Juventus also came to mind. However, Yours Truly was never a fan of Tacconi in terms of goalkeeping style, as his effective but sometimes awkward technique made it less-than-cool in Yours Truly's eyes.

Speaking of goalkeeper jerseys, Yours Truly always remember seeing a particular one on television once donned by goalkeepers like Giovanni Galli, Luca Marchegiani, Giovanni Cervone and Mario Ielpo in the early 90s’. On TV, it looked like either black or dark brown at the top, and teal/light green at the bottom. Yours Truly spent a long time looking for it online and surprisingly, it proved rather elusive. Then one morning recently, he finally stumbled onto it.

Mario Ielpo

(Photo credit: La Gazzetta dello Sport)

Giovanni Galli

(Photo credit: www.laststicker.com)

While it probably does not matter to anyone else, it means the world to Yours Truly.

And once again, Yours Truly has to thank the amazing internet for coming to the rescue.

Two is Better Than Three

Yours Truly grew up a huge fan of Formula 1 in the early eighties, and is still mesmerised by that fascinating 1982 season that he has told everyone he knows that if there is ONE Formula 1 season somebody has to catch up, 1982 has to be it.

But since then, Formula 1 has never been as fascinating as that single year. In recent years, he has found solace in Moto3, where every race features closely-fought battles among a dozen or so riders. Almost every Moto3 race features a race-winning overtake in the last few corners, and Yours Truly would scarcely leave his worn out sofa just to watch every single second of action.

This year, however, Moto3 is boring. The main culprit? Colombian David Alonso. In seven races so far, he has got four poles and five victories. Now, dominating Moto3 is not a bad thing, like what Pedro Acosta did in 2021 when he became an instant sensation. To Yours Truly, however, Alonso is so good that he is boring, just like Max Verstappen in Formula 1. He seldom makes any mistakes, and his CFMoto bike is ridiculously good and reliable. When he hits the front, you can say for sure that he will keep his lead until the end of the race.

What’s worse is the emergence of a so-called Big Four this year in Moto3: Alonso, Daniel Holgado, Collin Veijer and Ivan Ortola. At least two of them have appeared in every podium this year so far. And also gone are the days of different riders fighting for victory. In almost every race, these four would distance themselves from the rest of the field, and fight for the win in the end.

So Yours Truly has decided to watch something else for more excitement. Luckily for him, he does not have to look far as Moto2 has turned into a fascinating slugfest this year. The first seven races this year have been won by six riders, and the leader, Sergio Garcia, struggled mightily last season but has somehow turned the corner on a Boscoscuro bike. His team-mate, Ai Ogura, was once expected to move up to MotoGP but has also struggled in Moto2 in recent years. Somehow, he picked up a victory in Catalunya and is now third in the championship. And the most consistent rider, Joe Roberts, picked up his first win since 2022 last time out but only sits second in the standings.

How about the pre-season favourite, Fermin Aldeguer, another Boscoscuro rider who will move up to MotoGP next season? He did win in Jerez, but is only sixth in the standings after two DNFs in a row. His team-mate, Alonso Lopez, who unexpectedly was offered a ride in mid-2022 after the controversial Romano Fenati was ousted, led the championship early on but has fallen back to fourth. And sitting in fifth is the wildly inconsistent Manuel Gonzalez, who you have no idea how he will fare in a race.

And the rider in seventh, Aron Canet, finally won his first Moto2 race in Portimao earlier this year, but missed the race in Jerez due to injury. Despite that, he is just five points behind Aldeguer in the standings.

That is pure pandemonium.

So for now, Yours Truly will keep a close eye on Moto2 and see who will be crowned Champion come November. And he will not be surprised if someone other than those seven will end up on top.