Greens play in blue

During April 1931, Temesoara Athleticsport Club, of Romania, toured North Africa and Joe Gasan, in conjuction with ‘Meme’ Scicluna of the Stadium, jumped at this opportunity to bring the team from eastern Europe to Malta on their way back home.

Temesoara AC played three matches on consecutive days here.

The public regretfully did not give this tour the support it deserved and the only decent attendance was that of April 14, when the Worcestershire Regiment team provided the opposition.

This apathy was very surprising because TAC, although not classed among the greats of that era, were a very good combination and played attractive football.

Their standard of football was superior to that of the local teams and in headwork they stood out unchallenged. Safe goalkeeping, a good defence and untiring forward running were factors which made Temesoara a really solid outfit.

On April 11, 1931 TAC played against Floriana.

The Greens were coming from a tough league game against Sliema Wanderers and had their two wingers, Salvu Grima and Ġużi Agius, injured. They also had Pawlu Friggieri missing because he was on duty with the Navy.

The Greens therefore invited Gruppetta, of Ħamrun Spartans, and Rogantin Pisani, of Sliema Wanderers, to line up for them as guest players. Pisani, however, was not allowed to play as his club objected against the move.

TAC made the mistake of under-estimating their opponents. This was especially true in the early phases of the game as the Romanians tried to walk the ball into the net instead of shooting, thus giving Floriana the chance to settle down.

Although the Greens never really threatened the visitors, they saw to it that the Romanians were contained. Adopting destructive tactics, they prevented Temesoara from scoring and the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

A common, but in this case strange, incident occured which made this game stick in one’s memory.

TAC played in green and white jerseys and as was the custom in such circumstances the home team had to change colours.

The strange thing is that Floriana borrowed a set of jerseys from the Navy and played with the traditional blue shirts of their greatest rivals Sliema.

This was a big thing in those days when the rivalry between the two teams was at its peak.

After all, imagine Celtic playing in the blue shirts of Rangers!

I don’t know what was in the minds of the Floriana committee.

Was it just a coincidence or, as some evil tongues hinted, that Floriana expected a drubbing and they did not want to soil the honour of their colours.

These, of course, were only rumours but it makes one wonder when taking into account Floriana’s injury problems. If this was the case then things certainly worked out differently because the ‘Blue’ of the Wanderers brought Floriana a good slice of luck.