Chapter 9: The B team (1/3)
"Don't worry Jude you can leave the cages to me, I'll make sure to traumatize their strikers and get myself a spot in the B team" Alex my new best friend was the first one to greet me while being as cheerful as ever.
"Bahahaha it doesn't matter cause no matter how much they score on you I'll be scoring twice as much" I high fived him and we both went towards our team.
The B team had their own coach while our coach was Mark who accompanied Evans in the try outs.
"Guys, today is your opportunity to prove yourself. Both individually and as a team. You have to make sure you give it your all, the ones who play the best might even get scouted in the B team." Everyone listened to the coach's words attentively.
"We'll start by announcing the line up for today's match. I thought about it a lot for this whole month. We'll go for a 4-1-4-1 with a defensive midfielder, 2 offensive midfielder and 2 wingers. We'll prioritize our offense in this game." Everyone tensed up, we all wished to be on the starting eleven.
"First of all, Alex Ramirez, you've shown exceptional talent and I believe we can trust you with being our goal keeper."
"...."
"Pedro Pasqual, you're the one who have been here for the longest as well as the best player we have. You'll be the captain in this match as well as the pillar of our defense. And you'll play as the defensive midfielder."
"...."
"The second attacking midfielder will be Nathan Swift, we will be counting on your long passes during counters"
"...."
"And finally our striker will be Jude Sanchez, we'll be counting on you, most of the attacks should be focused and built around you." The coach finally finished announcing the line up.
Many people were disappointed to not be in the starting eleven but nobody could argue with the coach, after all this was the most logical line up which included all of our best players.
That was the only way for us to have a chance to win and they knew it.
Right before the game started a screen I haven't seen in a while appeared in front of my eyes again.
[Side quest: a place in the B team!
Difficulty: D
Description:
Win the game and earn yourself a place in the B team.
Reward: 20 stat points.
Bonus reward:
5 stat points for every goal.
2 stat points for every assist.]
It's been a while since I have last gotten a quest but I quickly disregarded it, I was already planning on winning this game anyway, I shouldn't let anything distract me.
Our captain, pascal, an above average height, well built, short haired guy advanced for the coin toss.
The first kick off is ours. We all went into our positions and I went for the kickoff with Nathan being right behind me, it made me feel a bit nostalgic of our first match.
Suddenly while looking at him I could feel as if he directly understood what I meant, it's been a while since we did it but it might work.
I passed the ball to him and immediately start running towards the other team's defense, Nathan went on run through their midfield by using a one two tactic with the other attacking midfielder.
The 2 wingers both ran towards each sides of the field which took them by surprise and took them off guard even more.
The wingers got most of their attention and opened up their defense but they themselves knew they were nothing but baits for me.
Once Nathan saw one of the 2 center backs guarding me start moving away from me to go towards them he immediately sent a sharp cross which went past that defender and got nicely trapped in my feet.
With only one defender left I was able to have all my fun, I feigned a run to the left which make him go off balance for a moment which made me cut in towards the right, he managed to follow me a bit and be shoulder to shoulder to me.
Suddenly I dropped the pace a bit and pretended to go for another dribble which made him try to tackle me.
I used this opportunity to send a back heel pass straight towards Nathan who was running straight towards the goal.
Even if the pass was very far from perfect the ball went through the defenders open feet and was easily received by Nathan who was on a one on one situation with the opponent's goalkeeper.
Everyone rushed towards him even though they knew they probably couldn't reach him, but right when everyone thought he would score he instead passed the ball back in the air.
The ball came towards me at a relatively slow speed, but the height was perfect to go for my favorite shot, an easy full power volley right into the left corner.
Everyone was taken by surprise by the weird move of Nathan that didn't seem to have any logic or reason to it but the keeper was unable to react in time to save my shot which went straight through the net.
1-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game.
That's exactly what the coach have hoped for, an extremely offensive start to put pressure on them. We're the challengers who have nothing to lose in this game. While they're the ones who might lose their places in the B team at any given moment.
Nathan jumped on my back to celebrate our goal, during that month together we were named as the most dangerous attacking duo, every match day whenever we were on the same side there wasn't any doubt about who the winners would be.
I had total trust in him being able to get his passes through while he had full trust in me being able to get my shots inside the goal.
At the beginning of that one month of training he was the one who supported me the most and vouched for me to be the striker during training matches.
After high fiving a few more teamates we all went back to our positions. It seems like our offensive start put team B in a pretty bad mood as we could see their two strikers argue.
As soon as the kickoff was played I rushed towards the striker who had the ball, my defense was pretty bad but since none of them knew that I decided to use that to my advantage and put pressure on them.
The stress affected their thoughts, they were too scared to risk dribbling through me and losing the ball so instead they advanced very slowly and kept stalling with passes.
Finally after 10 minutes of playing around their midfield and defense they went on the offensive. Both of their strikers were pretty speedy and managed to get through our midfield.
They finally managed to get along and form a nice one two tempo. Unfortunately for them Pascal didn't let that happen and appeared out of nowhere while stopped the offensive with a well time slide tackle.
That tackle made the striker in possession lose balance and fall which nearly caused a fight. That striker got warned that if he kept his bad attitude going he'd get subbed off.
That warning was enough to worsen the whole B team's mood. They all knew that this match wasn't a match they were supposed to lose.
In the case of a loss they knew many people might lose their places in the B team.
This situation made them all play much more aggressively. In the 35th minute as soon as our winger made a mistake and lost the ball, they all rushed on the offensive, they all ran towards our defense while hoping to even out the score.
Unfortunately for them our captain saw through one of their passes and intercepted the ball and blocked the attacker with his pretty bulky body.
He then followed up with a strong pass towards Nathan who ran straight towards the opponent's goal.
He was already past all of their midfielders who advanced way too much, I accompanied him and we went past the first defender with a simple one two.
We only had a one more defender to go through and the ball was in my possession.
The defender ran straight towards me so I turned my body a bit towards Nathan and let their center back come close to me then faked wanting to give my teammate a pass.
The defender who have already been nutmegged by my pass before the first goal tried to come in between me and Nathan to intercept the balt and make up for his past mistake.
But unlike the pass he expected I simply did a roulette using the fact that he was very close to me to leave him behind my back then after advancing a bit more towards the goal I shot it at full power towards the left corner.
"Let's gooooo!!!"
2-0 in the 42nd minute.
Their goalkeeper was unable to stop it which once again cost them a goal.
Even after the rest of the first half went on they were unable to advance anymore and that's how the first half ended on a 2 to 0 score.
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