Austin Okocha, a Super Eagles icon, was in Florida on Friday to attend a Legends game hosted by a former teammate, Ronaldinho, and he once again reminded fans of his captivating abilities.
Listed under “The Beautiful Game” At Exploria Stadium, previous stars, current players, and a variety of other celebrities reunited for the second iteration of the exhibition game in Orlando City.
Brazilians Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos led their sides as captains, with Nigeria’s Okocha lining up alongside the legendary Ronaldinho in midfield.
In a thrilling match that was interrupted by a tropical downpour and a procession of young fans who took advantage of the game’s lagging momentum to interrupt it by running onto the pitch in search of a selfie with one or more of their footballing idols, the former captain of Nigeria opened the scoring.
On Friday, it appeared as though fans would see another absurdly high scoreline, similar to the first edition last year when Cafu hit the crossbar with only minutes remaining before Jay-Jay Okocha opened the scoring for Ronaldinho’s team by bamboozling the defence with some of his signature footwork and poking a finish past Colombian custodian Rene Higuita.
Five minutes later, Team Roberto Carlos (Team RC3) equalised when Rivaldo scored on a long-range shot that defeated Team R10 custodian Dida.
In the 25th minute, Patrick Kluivert gave Ronaldinho’s squad the advantage again by scoring after receiving a wonderful ball from Real Madrid winger Vinicuis Jr.
Okocha and Ronaldinho’s superb midfield partnership made Team R10 unstoppable, and Cafu’s chipped goal made it 3-1 after drawing Higuita off his line.
Four minutes later, Nani and Willian teamed up to help Team RC3 get a goal back via Lucas Moura, but that wasn’t all for the first half as Vinicuis Jr. scored on a chip to give Ronaldinho’s squad a 4-2 halftime lead.
Before the game lost its momentum shortly after the hour mark due to Okocha and other notable players being replaced, in addition to the many interceptions by pitch invaders, Roberto Carlo’s squad did manage to pull one back.
The game concluded early with a score of 4-3 and a win for the Jay Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho-inspired squad R10 due to the crowd invasion and rain.
