Okocha Excites Fans At Ronaldinho’s Legends Charity Match
Nigerian Football legend, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha showed that despite advancing in age, he still has a lot in him with a dazzling performance at Orlando City’s Exploria Stadium in Florida
It was a star-studded charity game featuring past and present football stars, including former Brazilian greats, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos
Rolling back the years, Okocha produced an incredible goal by navigating through the opposition’s defence and chipping over Keeper Rene Higuita. The goal stunned Ronaldinho and Vinicius Junior who all appeared in the charity match.
Tagged ‘The Beautiful Game’, the second edition of the exhibition game was a reunion of former stars and current players and an assortment of other celebrities. 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.
The former Barcelona superstar’s team included the likes of Okocha, Paolo Dybala, Vini Jr, as well as former Manchester United winger, Nani. They ended up winning the tie 4-3.
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.
The former Nigerian international opened the scoring with a glimpse of his silky dribbling by bamboozling the defence and weaving a path through the defence with some trademark footwork before poking a finish past former Colombian national team goalkeeper Rene Higuita.
Five minutes later, Rivaldo equalised for Team Roberto Carlos (Team RC3) with a shot from a 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. About four minutes later, former Manchester United forward, 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.
However, the pitch invasion by fans and the heavy downpour ensured the game ended prematurely with scores at 4-3 as Jay Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho-inspired team R10 ran out victorious on the day. – With agency reports
