Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Vitoria de Guimares VS FC Porto II: Unexpected Situation
“Romario will be coming off for Shoya Nakajima,”

“Shoya will be able to do more upfront and help the strikers since that’s his conventional position,”

“Sergio Oliveira will be moving to the left-back position while Mattheus Uribe will be coming off for Wilson Manafa,” Sergio Conceicao started with the changes to the line-ups going into the second half.

Making two substitutions out of the available three substitutions at halftime may seem like he was going overboard, but the team was already losing and if he didn’t make the changes earlier, they may not have enough time to make any difference in this game.

The two players he had taken off were not doing enough to help the team in their attacking endeavors so it was best he took them off now rather than waiting and hoping they could step up in the second half.

With the changes out of the way, Sergio Conceicao went further to make more changes to the team’s tactical set-up within the few remaining minutes they had for their break.

Soon enough though, it was time for the players to head back out for the second half.

The Porto players went back out with determined faces, eager to correct their first-half performance with a better performance and hopefully a better outcome.

The second half kicked off with Vitoria de Guimares in possession.

They quickly set out to play even more attacking football than in the first half, seemingly trying to carry over the momentum from their first goal into the second half, but this time the Porto side seemed to be up to the task and easily repelled them and snatched possession of the ball.

For the next fifteen minutes, the Porto side played good attacking football, always looking to start an attack every moment they were with the ball and quickly starting a press whenever they lost possession to snatch the ball back.

Within the first fifteen minutes of the second half, the Porto side managed to get more than five shots away with three of them being on target, but the heroics of the Vitoria de Guimares goalkeeper kept Porto from scoring.

Sergio Conceicao’s worry was growing for every minute he watched from the sidelines.

His team had still not equalized and for every minute that passed, it was becoming more difficult for them to gain anything from the game.

‘It seems it’s time to take a risk,’ he thought to himself as his eyes fell on Jason who waited on the bench, his eyes on the game.

“Jason, begin to warm up,” Sergio Conceicao suddenly called out to Jason, who was fully focused on the match as he tried to analyze the opponent’s playing style and behavioral pattern but was still attentive to his surroundings to hear the coach.

“Yes, coach,” A burst of excitement flooded his mind as he stood up and began to do a few warm-up exercises, still keeping his eyes on the game.

At that moment, the Porto side was on the attack once again, deftly passing the ball just outside the opposing team’s penalty area while looking for an opportunity to release the ball.

Shoya Nakajima had just received the ball from Jesus Corona who was trying to make a run inside to receive the ball immediately inside the box.

Not wanting to disappoint, he tried to send the ball in between the defenders and into the path of Jesus Corona, but in his haste, he did not fully survey the area before he sent the ball forward which led to the ball being intercepted.

The Vitoria de Guimares left back who had just intercepted the ball saw that the Porto side was gathered in their half while trying to find an equalizing goal and that this was a good opportunity for a counterattack, so he quickly sent the ball flying over them forward into the midfield.

The Vitoria de Guimares right winger somehow managed to escape his marker and chase after the incoming ball.

He trapped the ball carefully and quickly took off at the Porto’s goal with all the Porto defenders chasing him from behind.

Diogo Leite who was the closest defender pumped his legs as fast as possible as he gave chase.

He knew that if he let the player get away and the player scored a goal to allow the Vitoria de Guimares side to double their lead, then the game was as good as over.

So he made a quick decision and as soon as he was close enough, he lunged forward in a tackle that could only be called a flying tackle and entwined his legs with the Vitoria de Guimares right winger and brought him down just before he made it into the penalty area.

*FWEEEEEE!!!*

The referee ran towards their location and without any hesitation in his movements, swiftly pulled out a red card.

Diogo Leite already saw it coming from the moment he made the decision to bring the player down so he didn’t even bother trying to argue with the referee about his decision but rather he had a slight smile on his face instead.

Even his teammates came around to give him high fives because they knew that he had sacrificed himself to keep the team’s hopes of getting something from the game alive.

The Porto fans and the players on the sideline were stunned instead and Jason even had to stop his warm-up routines as he knew that the situation had just changed.

Professional teams were only allowed to make three substitutions and Sergio Conceicao had already made two, but now one of the team’s defenders had gotten a red card and was sent off, so he would have to be replaced.

No team would willingly leave a hole in their defense if they could help it, especially not a losing team as they had to avoid conceding any further goals that would set them back even further so it only stood to reason that Jason probably wouldn’t be able to come on to the pitch for this match because of the current situation.

Sergio Conceicao as the head coach was in even more of a dilemma.

He couldn’t fault the player who had been sent off because he had sacrificed himself for the team, but at the same time, he could not leave a hole in the team’s defense at this point.

He also couldn’t possibly tell Danilo Pereira to fill the center-back position as he was already doing so while having to do a lot in the midfield as well.

Thus it was inevitable that he would have to bring on another defender at this point instead of an attacker, but what was he supposed to tell the young player that he had already told to warm up and had given him hopes of a debut?

At this moment, Jason walked up to the Sergio Conceicao and asked,