Jay-Jay Okocha shines at Ronaldinho’s charity Football game
Former Super Eagles skipper, Austin Okocha put up a dazzling performance at a legends’ football match organised to honour former teammate, Ronaldinho in Florida on Friday.
The second edition of the exhibition game, tagged, “The Beautiful Game,” played in Orlando City, was a reunion of former stars and current players and an assortment of other celebrities at Exploria Stadium.
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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.
Fans witnessed another absurdly high scoreline on Friday when Brazilian former football player, Cafu hit the crossbar with just minutes played before Jay-Jay Okocha opened the scoring for Ronaldinho’s team after bamboozling the defence with some trademark footwork before poking a finish past Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita.
Rivaldo equalised for Team Roberto Carlos (Team RC3) with a shot from distance that beat Team R10 goalkeeper Dida, five minutes later.
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.
Nani and Willian combined to set-up Lucas Moura to pull one back for Team RC3, but 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.
The invasion of fans and the downpour ensured the game ended prematurely with scores at 4-3, victory for the Jay Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho inspired team R10.
