Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 76

Chapter 76: A Debut to Remember II
After the ball went out for a corner kick, Porto took a corner kick that ended up being sent back into the midfield by the Leverkusen players and they were once again locked outside the box, but they weren’t going to give up on attacking and were soon trying to break through the Bayer Leverkusen defense.

Alex Telles had just sent the ball to the middle of the field where it was picked up by Otavio before he sent it down the right wing toward Jason but in his haste, he had sent the ball a little farther away from Jason’s path than expected.

Charles Aranguiz also quickly ran for the loose ball in a bid to clear it, but by virtue of his quicker acceleration, Jason got to the ball first and not losing his composure, coolly slotted the ball between the legs of Charles Aranguiz who was charging over, increasing the number of times he had nutmegged him in the match to two.

This time, Charles Aranguiz didn’t want to let Jason get past him again so easily and tried to grab onto Jason, but Jason as if expecting this quickly brushed away Aranguiz’s hands, not letting him have anything to grab onto.

Just after escaping from Charles Aranguiz, Jason came face to face with Lars Bender, the opposing team’s captain and it was obvious from how Lars’ face and posture that he wasn’t going to let Jason get by him as easily as he had gotten past Aranguiz, but Jason didn’t care right now as he felt like he was in the zone.

Quickly making a feint as if to go left, Jason pushed the ball toward the left of the German defensive midfielder with the tip of his right foot and the moment he noticed Lars moving to block his path, his leg moved past the ball before flicking it back to the right in a smooth and swift motion, performing a reverse elastico and getting past the Leverkusen team captain.

With the Leverkusen team captain out of the way, Jason spotted Tiquiniho Soares making a run and was almost getting past his marker, so Jason quickly sent a through pass into his before he ran offside.

Just as he expected, Soares made it past his marker and quickly stretched his leg to control and push the ball in his path slightly forward.

He managed to achieve his intention and was quickly in control of the ball, just managing to enter the Leverkusen penalty box, but the Leverkusen defenders didn’t have the intention of allowing him to get his shot away and were quickly moving in on him, forcing him to take the shot from the edge of the box.

Not wanting to risk losing the ball, Soares quickly took the shot, aiming for the top right corner but just as he had lifted his hands to cheer, Hradecky somehow managed to get his hand to the ball and deflect the ball out for a corner kick.

{And yet again, Hradecky denies the dragons with a scintillating save. The Finnish goalkeeper seems to be the only one standing between the dragons and the goal they so dearly want}

{Do I have to say, that we might be witnessing another great talent rising in the football world as the performances put on display by the young Nigerian winger are a delight to see and if he keeps this up, he could help his team to claim the goal they are so desperately searching for} The commentator couldn’t keep his excitement out of his voice and shouted with a rising fervor every second that went by, completely impressed by Jason’s performance in the game.

With the commentator being that impressed, little needed to be said about the Porto fans who were already falling in love with this new player who hadn’t even been on the pitch for thirty minutes.

Even the Bayer Leverkusen fans were impressed and so was everyone who was watching the match’s live broadcast on their televisions, phones, or at viewing centers.

Jason who was on the field was of course oblivious of this and was already positioning himself in the penalty box for the corner, feeling a little exasperated that the team hadn’t been able to equalize yet.

‘Why is this guy so good today?’ Jason thought exasperatedly with a wry smile as he glanced at Lukas Hradecky who was currently the undisputed best player on the opposition team.

Jason didn’t remember Lukas Hradecky being this good in his previous reality, so what was going on, and why was this guy performing like he had been possessed by prime Casillas, Buffon, and Petr Cech all combined into one person?

His errant thoughts weren’t helping him to decode the goalkeeper, so he put his thoughts away and focused on the incoming corner kick, but before he had the chance to jump for the ball, Jonathan Tah had gotten his head to it with an impressive leap and had sent the ball towards the midfield.

Jason quickly moved out of the Leverkusen penalty box and slowly moved back to his position on the right wing, not feeling bad about not having gotten a chance to try to head the cross into the corner into the goal post as he knew that his heading skills were probably his worst attributes after his defending and goalkeeping, so he would have flopped the header anyway.

The ball that was cleared into the midfield by Jonathan Tah had quickly been retrieved by the Porto team and they were already back on the attack, their momentum undampened by their continuous failed attempts.

They passed the ball cleverly among themselves in the Bayer Leverkusen half and seemingly recognizing Jason’s influence in revitalizing their attacking efforts, Jason was soon picked out again by Otavio.

Jason received the ball just a few yards away from the right corner of the Leverkusen penalty area and quickly moved towards the penalty box, but Aleksandar Dragovic quickly blocked his path, not planning to let him run freely anymore.

Jason could immediately see from the look in Dragovic’s eyes that he wouldn’t hesitate to foul him harshly if he tried to dribble past him, so Jason quickly looked for the nearest pass instead, but all his teammates who were close enough were being tightly marked and Jason didn’t want to pass back to the defense as that would bring an end to the attack.

Seemingly out of options, he started moving forward and once he was close enough, he did a couple of step-overs to confuse the defender.

Once he had drawn Dragovic in with his movements, he suddenly cut towards the left, creating just enough space to get a shot away.

Without hesitation, Jason unleashed a curler from the right corner of the penalty area with his less dominant left foot, aiming for the bottom left corner of the goal.

Hradecky was alert and dived for the ball, but just when it seemed like the ball would finally manage to get past his outstretched arm, the tip of Hradecky’s gloves slightly touched the ball and deflected the ball just a bit from it’s original path.

*CLANG*

A ringing sound echoed as the ball clanged against the left goal post causing groans of agony and unacceptance to fill the stands where the Porto fans stood with their hands raised in the air.

The players on the field however ignored the groans coming from the stands as the ball wasn’t out of play yet, the ball had clanged against the left goal post and bounced back into play towards the left side of the penalty area.