"By the way, Cleon, you said you could play in a match when a team needs you to substitute their players who are injured. What do you mean? Doesn't a team usually have substitute players?" Adam asked while they walked down the stairs.
"In amateur team, usually there are limited numbers of players. You know, they have already had difficulty renting an arena for training, pay players wages, and maintenance of their equipment. If they have more players, they might go bankrupt," Pete answered.
"Don't they have a sponsor?"
Pete turned his head, "What do you mean by sponsor?"
"So that's the problem. They heavily depend on themselves for maintaining the team. Of course, it will be hard," Adam murmured as he walked down.
"Si- I mean Adam, could you elaborate on what you said, just now?" Pete asked.
"It's like this. A team needs more than one income source to develop normally. Because before becoming a professional team, it can be said they don't generate income except from winning some competitions. So sponsors are needed. The problem is the society hasn't been ready. But it is also an opportunity for the first one who opens the door."
"Uh... I didn't really catch it. But it seems true," Pete said, although he was still confused.
Adam smiled, " You will understand someday, don't worry."
Unconsciously, They had already arrived in front of the door.
"Adam, welcome to battle ball world! The real men's world," Cleon opened the door, and a lot of voice was heard,
***
"Gooaaallll! The ball was successfully in. That's a great goal by Dito. What do you think Frank, about the process of the goal?" With the background voice of hundreds of audiences who were cheering from the seats, a commentator spook loudly, it seemed he used something like a voice amplifier.
"It was truly a magnificent spectacle. Gero's crossing, and then Dito's execution were a perfect combination. Look at Gavin's expression, the goalkeeper of Solidarity team, hahaha... he still couldn't believe what has happened," His partner answered.
"Now, we will give some time for Solidarity team to prepare. I hope they didn't give up halfway. 4 goals behind must be hurt, but as everyone says, the game must go on, and of course you must finish your first match."
***
"Wow, many audiences are watching. Who are playing?" Cleon asked.
"It's Firering, as for their opponent, it looks like a new team. Oh, from the commentator, its name should be Solidarity. Look like they wanted to kick off," Pete answered.
Adam was standing among them, watching the game. In his last life, he wasn't a fan of soccer. He knew the rules of it and sometimes watched a few trending games, like el clasico between Barcelona vs Real Madrid. But he didn't know if his humble knowledge could useful in this world.
And only five minutes for him to make a conclusion, "It's not soccer, it's a battlefield, a fun battlefield."
A player in red uniform with number 7 on his back was dribbling the mana ball on the left flank of the field. In front of him, a player in a blue uniform moved to intercept him. The player in red then looked accelerated his dribbling, then he decelerated a second later.
Adam was confused, he didn't know why he did that. But, less than a second, he got the answer.
Then something strange happened, the player in blue suddenly made a tackle movement, but in Adam's opinion, it's way too early. He slid off ridiculously.
"I have to say, Gero is one of the top Illusionists in Silverpool City," Pete commented.
Player number 7, Gero went through without obstacles. Then a new opponent came, but he looked more careful.
Gero then kicked the ball to the center of the field to make a through ball.
The player from the center who came to intercept Gero realized he had made a mistake. A player with appearance of werewolf in red with number 10 on his back ran fast to chase the ball. But an earth wall emerged in front of him separated him and the ball.
Didn't give up, he jumped over the earth wall, but he had lost the momentum. The goalkeeper of Solidarity decisively moved forward and kicked the ball over his head.
"That goalkeeper is pretty good. I don't know, how the four goals were scored. But his teammates aren't good enough," Cleon said.
"Yeah, if the others don't improve, he is definitely will leave or her talent will be buried, by the way, his name is Gavin right?" Pete still looked at the goalkeeper who had already arrived below the crossbar.
In the last 25 minutes, Solidarity team couldn't score a goal, either was Firering. Firering team still dominated the game, but Gavin, the Solidarity goalkeeper didn't give up. Dozens of saving has been done by him. His teammates looked like had already given up. They looked only hoped, the game could be ended immediately.
As usual, Gero started their offense from the left flank, his opponent was nervous. In this game, he couldn't count how many times Gero humiliated him. He couldn't read Gero's illusion at all. One time, he could tackle Gero coincidentally, but the referee saw them as an active attack, and gave him a yellow card, and give Firering some free kicks.
This time, like the last few encounters, he didn't try to intercept Gero, but guarded him and didn't give him an easy time. Although he couldn't snatch the ball from Gero, he gave a hard time for Gero to adjust his passing. Gero could use illusion to deceive him, but he started to know Gero's habit, as long as he didn't do any tackle, some body contact wouldn't make the referee whistle.
Maybe he had some tricks to harass Gero, but as a newbie, he still couldn't effectively manage his stamina. Shadowing Gero wasn't an easy job. Gero had gotten used for being shadowed, so he was patiently competing with him. Gero knew, sooner and later, the opportunity would come.
Gero like usual accelerated and he still could follow. Gero then decelerated and changed his direction, suddenly his felt couldn't control his right foot, and fell down.
Gero didn't know what happened to him, but this situation must be used well. Gero then ran straight to the penalty box, the middle guard surprised and instinctively went to Gero to intercept him.
Dito the werewolf, used this opportunity to find a spot and gave Gero a signal to pass. Received Dito's signal, Gero passed the ball to him and Dito directly shot after received the ball.
Gavin made the most sensible choice, which was to close his distance with Dito. And it worked, he could block the ball with his right foot, but unfortunately, the ball bounced to open space. Not far from it, Gero did his best to chase the ball. But because he was guarded, he couldn't do much.
Then he saw a player who wore a red uniform ran toward his direction. He knew his teammate came for the ball, so he pressed the guard for giving his teammate time.
Annoyed, the guard used his elbow toward Gero. Because his height a way taller than Gero, his elbow hit Gero's nose. Gero was fell down. The guard then cleared the ball toward the side line. Then he heard a whistle sound.
His body was stiff, he looked where were his and Gero's position which in the penalty box and know he made a big mistake. He saw the referee came to him and showed him a red card. He knew his playing time was over.
Gero was laying on the field. He was dizzy, and his nose was bleeding. He tried to stop the blood, but it didn't work. A healer then came to him to give him a treatment.
***
"It's over," Pete said after saw the situation in the field.
"Yeah, with two players out, it's impossible for Solidarity to play," Adam said. Although Adam wasn't an expert, he could saw, Solidarity, who only had five players left, couldn't continue playing against Firering. Moreover, they might leave behind one more goal, because Firering got a penalty kick chance.
"But, it is an opportunity. I will look at the situation if they want to recruit outside players to enter the empty positions." Pete stood up and walked toward the field.
Adam wanted to say that it wasn't possible for substituting a player who got a red card, but then he remembered, it was not soccer, but battle ball. In battle ball which the players of each team who played in the field only seven, it's reasonable for substituting a player who was sent out with a new player.
Adam wondered if there were other transmigrators beside him. The battle ball was definitely this world version of soccer. Adam believed the creator of battle ball came from earth, or maybe the opposite, the creator of soccer came from this world who like him, transmigrated to earth.
"Wait! I follow you. Maybe I can get the position," Cleon said and then stood up.
But then they realized Adam would be alone, if they go, so Pete said, "Si- Adam, would you like to follow?"
Adam smiled but shook his head, "You go, I will watch you from here."
Got Adam's approval, they nodded and ready to go.
"We will show you a good performance," Cleon said while grinning."
Adam could only laugh and gave them tumb up.
"You know Eve, I have an idea to get a steady GP," Adam turned his head to a pixie who sat on his right shoulder.
"If you can think about it, of course, I can also think. And that is a good idea," Eve crossed her arms and looked the field thoughtfully.