Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: First Trial Match; Team B vs Team C
*FWEEEEEE!!!*

The final whistle on the match between teams A and D was blown. The match ended with a score of 5:3 in the favor of Team A and their happiness could be seen on their tired faces as they trudged off the field while unhappiness and even the slightest hint of despair could be seen on the face of the losers.

They knew that they had lost any further chances of impressing the scouts, unlike their opponents who would still be playing another match.

Now they could only hope that they had played well enough in the match to catch the eyes of some of the scouts.

These were the thoughts and feelings of the losers.

They were thoughts Jason could see on their faces, but thoughts he never planned to have, and to make sure of this he would play to the best of his abilities while hoping that his teammates did the same and that the game plan that they had made before the match worked.

With a determined face, he walked onto the field with his teammates, and they started arranging themselves on the field according to their formation while their opponents did the same, less than a minute later, they were in their positions while waiting for the match to start.

The matches were to be played with a thirty-minute per half format with a ten-minute break in between halves.

The referee for the match put his whistle to his mouth while waiting for the striker of team B to stand over the ball since they had won the coin toss for who was to pass first.

The striker quickly went to stand over the ball when he saw the referee looking at him and as soon as he did that, he heard the referee blow the whistle indicating the beginning of the match, so he quickly passed back into their half.

With the match beginning, the three forwards of team C charged into the opponent’s half, chasing after the ball while Jason followed after them with a jog all while watching as they positioned themselves so he could determine the formation in which they were playing.

Jason could see three players lining themselves up at the back and while the players in the midfield were running around and passing the ball to avoid losing the ball, he could still see that there were only four of them in the midfield.

‘So, a 3-4-3 formation, huh?’ he wondered as he determined the initial shape of the opponent’s team while roaming around in front of the team’ B’s central striker to be able to intercept the ball should it come his way.

He could see his fellow team midfielders doing the same around the wingers from team B while the defenders stayed backward as a last line of defense should the midfield be broken through.

The ball kept going around in the opponent’s half for more than a full minute, yet team C’s forwards hadn’t gotten a touch on the ball, so they glanced back at Jason and receiving his approval in his gaze, they began to stealthily drop back as discussed, making it seem like they couldn’t get a touch on the ball.

Team B’s midfielders seemingly realized this and began to become more daring with the ball.

They started to move forward slowly into the opponent’s half and even began doing some skill moves and going around team C’s forwards, but even after a few more minutes team C still hadn’t opened any space as they patiently waited for team A to attack.

Finally, the players of team B couldn’t take the stalemate anymore and their forwards quickly made forward runs while one of the center midfielders did a chip pass over the midfielders toward his team’s forwards.

The target of the pass was the central striker that Jason was marking.

Jason couldn’t do anything about the ball that flew over his head and watched as the ball flew towards the central striker who was charging toward team C’s goalpost, but he wasn’t alarmed as this was all accounted for in the game plan.

The team B center forward managed to trap the ball and began charging toward the goalpost with the ball at his feet but quickly had to stop as he saw the two center backs in his way.

He quickly glanced at the wings hoping to find someone to get the ball across to, but his wingers were all being kept in check by team C’s fullbacks,

Before he could decide on where to pass to, Jason had already closed in on him causing him to panic slightly and attempt a dribble past the center backs of team C, but unfortunately, he lost the ball to Kevin who quickly passed the ball to the Carlos who was behind him.

The team B forwards quickly charged at Carlos, hoping to recover the lost ball, but Carlos passed the ball further back to the goalkeeper, Aarons who didn’t pick up the ball but rather did a chip pass over the right winger of team B to a now free Trevor while all the other members of team C began charging up field towards the into the opponent’s half.

Trevor did a quick scan of the field and sent the ball flying in the direction of Jordan Fuchs, his team’s right winger who was currently unmarked on the right side of the opponent’s half of the field.

Jordan noticed the ball coming his way and trapped it deftly before charging down the field, but before long, he noticed that his pathway was blocked by one of team B’s three center backs.

Without even trying to dribble past him, he passed the ball back into the central parts of the pitch to a waiting Jason’s feet who had been charging from behind.

Not wasting any time either, Jason sent the ball rolling behind one of the center backs towards the left wing where a charging Nico was running at full speed to catch the pass.

Unfortunately, Nico did not control the ball well and the ball almost ended up going out of bounds, but as soon as the ball was under control he changed his direction and moved the ball infield, but the few seconds he had wasted due to his poor control had allowed a defender to catch up and the defender was now blocking his path towards the goal.

The center back in Nico’s way was trying to slow him down and buy enough time for his teammates to get back on defense, but Nico quickly realized this and passed the ball back in-field towards an arriving Jason.

Jason approached the ball with his eyes on Daniel Forsberg who was making a run into the box with one of the three center backs hot on his heels while one of the others was coming for Jason himself, so he couldn’t afford to waste time on a second touch as he knew that the defender wouldn’t mind fouling him to prevent a goal, especially since he was only at the edge of the penalty area and not inside the penalty area yet.

Luckily, Jason had trained hard enough and had enough experience to make sure that he wasn’t out of ideas in a situation like this.

He calmly approached the ball, swung his right leg behind his left leg, and sent a curling rabona pass into the box at the charging Daniel who flew at the ball with his head in a diving header and sent the ball past the stunned goalkeeper who despite having dived for the ball couldn’t reach it in time due to his slightly delayed response at the sudden attack.

GOAAALLLL!!!