Narrator: Santi
It had barely been a week since I got here and nothing exciting had happened, I was just... I don't know, empty, I was completely empty, I tried so hard to forget what happened but it keeps replaying in my head, we were told to warm up now and my team was basically trash.
I had met a guy earlier, JAMES, he seemed like he could play football well, but he was just another Nico—completely useless.
The coach told us to pass among one another before shooting so as to test our goalkeeper, who also happened to be total dogshit.
I decided I would play as a false nine and they would both play as strikers so they could try shooting from close range, this worked a bit; they scored sometimes, but the goalkeeper outperformed them almost every single time.
It was literally just embarrassing now, we did a few more drills, and training ended shortly after.
We went back in and our watches started beeping, we looked at them and saw that everyone's ranking had changed, I asked the manager why, and he told me it was the result of how we were graded for the training session. I looked at him, wtf? That was graded? I had dropped two places down to eight, well, there's still today's match, I'll score all the goals today and go back up.
We had lunch and a few hours later, it was time for the match, we went on to the field and it's like all the other players were in the stands, they would watch our match? Would that not make them have an advantage in the next game?
There was a screen showing the scoreboard, we were team L (wow, what a great name, certainly does not spell doom) and we were playing team A, the manager had said that we were awarded letters based on the average ranking of the team, so, I guessed that we were last and were playing the best team in Red Zone.
We had the ball from kickoff though, that was good enough, the ref blew and instead of JAMES passing the ball back, he played a shot straight from kickoff, he of course did not score but we got a corner, I was not happy with this for a wide variety of reasons.
The first was that we were susceptible to a counter-attack now, we had also set a tempo we likely would not be able to match and most importantly, we had probably just removed every sense of complacency from these guys, they would play with all seriousness now, at the very least, we had to score from this corner.
I whipped the ball into the net, and it was laced perfectly for JAMES to score, but this fucker decided to do a bicycle kick, his leg refused to touch the ball and it dropped straight into the outstretched gloves of the opposing goalkeeper who then started a quick counter-attack.
I ran to defend, and my speed helped, but the opposing players were also fast. Their No. 8 played a precise pass to their No. 7, he gleefully played a defense splitting pass that confused the three defenders in front of him, only to be picked up by their no 9.
AKIRA came out and made himself appear big but their no 9 played a nice pass to their no 10 who would have put it into an empty net if I was not in front of him, he feinted left, but I didn't fall for it. When he went right, I followed, only to find it was another feint, as he went left again, my butt hit the floor.
He played a fake shot and as AKIRA dived to save it, he passed back to their no 9 who made it one nil by slotting it into an empty net. They celebrated and I just went to the halfway line, it's just one goal, it was not over yet.
We started and once again, JAMES played a shot and we got a corner, my team just crowded him and everyone was pissed, the hell was his problem, the ref broke up the fight and we went to the opponents half, I had something in mind, it was risky but I had to try it.
I whipped the ball straight into the net from the corner, curling it into the top left corner with my right foot and its deadly power.
That's it, we were level now, however, I had just wasted this ace, they would be ready for it next time and since all the other teams were here, it probably was also useless against any other team.
We started again, and this team passed all the way back to their goalkeeper, only seven minutes had passed and two goals had already been scored, Red Zone was the shit fr.
Their goalkeeper passed to a defender who passed to a midfielder, he passed to another midfielder and they exchanged passes four times moving the ball forward each time, as my team mates failed to intercept, their No.8 passed to their No.11 and he easily dispatched three-fourths of my team's defenders in a few seconds.
AKIRA rushed towards him and he chipped the ball, AKIRA jumped and put the ball out of play for a corner.
My team really stunk with this stinker of a performance we were putting up, their No.10 played a short corner which was picked up by their no No.11, they exchanged passes twice and their No.11 made lightwork of three of my team mates.
The first was our No.4 who got nutmegged, second was our No.3 who was feinted so cruelly that he sat down to reflect on his life. Our No.2 did a diving challenge but as he slid left, the ball went right, team A's No.11 passed to their No.9 who put it between AKIRA's legs to make it two goals to one.
We started again and this time, JAMES passed back, he passed to me and I gave it to our No.7 who passed to our No.8, he returned it to me and I passed to JAMES, JAMES passed it to Steward, Steward returned it to JAMES who gave it back to me and as a player came for the ball, I nutmegged him and picked the ball back up, running at their defense at an insane speed.
JAMES, Steward and our No.7 and 8 followed, I played a back heel pass to our No.8 and he lobbed it back to me as I ran forward, I did an elastico and went past another player before exchanging passes with our No.8 again.
A player came right in front of me and as I feinted left, he did not move, I feinted right and he stuck out his leg for the ball and I gently passed the ball between his legs before picking it back up and giving it to JAMES, I made myself free and waited for the pass to equalizesince JAMES was surrounded by multiple players.
PASS!!! I screamed as JAMES took a shitty shot that a defender blocked only for it to drop safely into their goalkeeper's hands, yep, they would counter now.
Their goalkeeper passed to their right back who just lobbed the ball to their no 8, in a triangular setting, their no 8, 7 and 6 exchanged numerous passes before their no 8 passed passed to their right winger and as my team mates crowded him, he passed to their now free striker but I and JAMES tried tackling him.
He dashed by me and cut JAMES to the left but our center back did a sliding tackle, just before our defender could touch the ball though, he passed to their left winger who was totally free and as he tried to slot it between AKIRA's legs, AKIRA kicked the ball out.
The ref blew and pointed to the spot, penalty, I looked on in dismay, shit, our center back had tackled their striker violently and the ball was nowhere near the point of contact, it was left to AKIRA now, if they scored again, the game could very well slip from us.
Their goalkeeper stepped up and AKIRA saved the penalty, I made a fist with my right hand and raised it in the air to signify victory, unfortunately for me, AKIRA had been off the line when the penalty was taken, it was to be retaken now.
This time, their striker played the penalty and he made no mistake, he slotted it into the top right corner clinically, AKIRA almost got his fingertips to it but he dived far too late.
The scoreline was three goals to one and we were now two goals down, we restarted and passed back, we had to lure them in and play out from the back, I was running into their half when I heard them scream goal. Wait, What? Shit, our center back had not just given away a penalty, he had scored an own goal.
I just shook my head and we restarted, we had to get a goal back now or it was all over for us, JAMES passed to me from kickoff and I returned the ball. He passed back and I started, the moment I got the ball, a player came in for a tackle, I cut him to the left.
Immediately after, another one came and I dispatched him the same way, I needed to be fast or this would not work, I ran and they followed but could not match my speed, I ran past player after player, the defense were in a straight line of four refusing to break formation.
I approached them, and as a player came in with a sliding tackle, I went right and evaded him. Their wing-back came in for a challenge and I dispatched him by cutting to the left with the outside of my left foot, there was now space between the encroaching wing-back I just dispatched and a center back.
The center back followed the ball, but I cut right into the box with the outside of my right foot, I ran towards the goal like my life depended on it as all their players rushed towards me, the only space free was forward, their goalkeeper came right at me and made himself very big.
That had no effect on me though, I faked a shot, and as he dived to the right, I lobbed the ball over him and into the net, a defender had kicked the ball out but it was already in the net by a long mile before he could achieve that.
We were now just two goals down, the match is yet to slip off of our hands. The entire stadium applauded my goal, but JAMES was not happy, he told me he was free and that I should have passed to him, I had honestly not seen him but he had no right to lecture me on passing, after all, he was ball hogging just minutes ago.
We restarted and these guys did what JAMES had tried to do nearly all game, they scored straight from kickoff, it was their No.10, AKIRA was sitting down comfortably as we restarted and could only watch helplessly as the ball lodged into the top right corner of the net.
Shit, my goal had no effect; I had done nothing, and nothing had changed, their No. 10 looked at JAMES condescendingly and said, 'That was easy. I have no idea why you couldn't pull that off.'"
That pissed me off, ohh, they wanna shit talk, let's see how well that goes for them, I told JAMES I would create a goal for him to finish, but he had to pass it back when I asked him to, I asked if that was understood and he nodded.
We restarted and I, JAMES and our No.8 formed a triangle, dribbling and exchanging passes as we used our team mates as decoys, our N0.8 was good, he played all too well, I broke formation and did a one-two with steward and as a player came in for a tackle, I nutmegged him and grabbed the ball before doing a roulette against the next player, another one stretched his leg but I cut him left before nutmegging another player.
I was now directly facing their defenders, a center back came in for a tackle and I dispatched him with an elastico, he sat down humbled. I played a nice pass to JAMES through the legs of their other center back.
JAMES did well not to waste the chance as he venomously put the ball into the net, good, we had a chance now, the ref blew for the end of this half and I looked on at the scoreboard. We were two goals down and they had somehow put 5 in our net.
I asked the ref when the second half would start, and he told me there was no second half, I looked at him perplexed and asked him what he meant, his answer was that games for this competition were only 45 minutes long with no extra time.
He told me that anyone who could not win a match in one half was not good enough to play professionally, I looked on in horror as it was announced that in the first game of the day, team L had lost to team A with a scoreline of five goals to three, as voted on by the participants in this tournament, the man of the match is SANTIAGO Omobolaji Omolade.
I looked on, bewildered. How was I the man of the match when we had lost? It made no sense but I really was THE MAN OF THE MATCH...