"How was the tournament?" Carlos immediately asked upon seeing his wife and son return.
His heart sank as he looked at his son. Maxi appeared dejected and lost.
"Don't worry, Maxi. If you had a bad day today, you'll amaze everyone even more in your next match. They'll see your skills have skyrocketed and be stunned," Carlos tried to motivate Maxi.
What he didn't notice was his wife covering her mouth to hide her laughter.
"I PRANKED YOU, DAD!!!"
"Hahaha!"
Maxi told his father he had pranked him.
"Pfft," Sophie couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing.
"You got pranked by our 7-year-old. You're amazing, darling. And you should really stop reading those novels. You seem to have developed a face-slapping addiction lately," Sophie said, pretending to be disappointed in her husband.
Carlos looked dejected and pretended to cry.
But Maxi was there to save his dad and comfort him.
"No worries, Dad. Even if Mom doesn't like your hobbies and leaves you, I'll take care of her."
What innocent Maxi didn't know was that this hurt his dad even more.
That night, when it was time to sleep, Maxi couldn't fall asleep. After counting to 1,000 sheep, he finally managed to drift off. He had a dream similar to last week's. He was with a girl who cheered him on and supported him. Thanks to her motivation, he was able to win the final against FC Bayern München.
As he enjoyed his dream, the alarm suddenly went off.
"Urgh, I knew it. It was too good to be true. But who is that girl I see in my dreams all the time?"
Maxi thought about it briefly before letting it go.
Today, Maxi was cheered on by even more people, including Carlos and Isa's father, Tom.
The tournament began with a dominant performance from the youth Bayern team, which defeated their opponents 3:0.
This time, there was a half-hour interval between each match.
We all warmed up together, and the match began at exactly 11 a.m.
We played the same formation as in our previous matches, a 1-2-1.
1860 München started with the kickoff. They shot, and the ball deflected off our lone defender and into the goal.
No chance for us.
We got unlucky.
"COME ON, GUYS! WE CAN DO THIS! LOOK AT LIVERPOOL 2005! DID THEY GIVE UP?" Maxi tried to motivate his teammates as he saw them dejected. They all had very weak mentalities. Due to this, Maxi, the youngest, needed to step up.
The kids were now a little more motivated and began retrieving the ball from the net.
Yousuf took the ball for the kickoff and looked at me.
When the referee blew his whistle, he immediately passed to me.
It seemed Yousuf was too nervous, and the ball was inaccurate. It was an easy ball passed to Maxi from a tricky angle.
Maxi couldn't shoot with either foot. He needed to hit a trivela.
He did as he thought and struck the ball with his outer instep. The ball was fast and curved beautifully. It flew right onto the upper left crossbar.
"Ping!"
The ball hit the crossbar and bounced away.
1860 players took the ball and attacked again. This was the first time Maxi felt real pressure.
He needed to defend the whole time to prevent another goal. He couldn't attack as he had too little time for that.
Maxi came up with an idea.
When he received the ball, he was immediately pressed by two players. He signaled to Yousuf to run to the left. Yousuf did, taking a defender with him.
"PAUL, RUN THROUGH THE MIDDLE!" I shouted and passed the ball against the billboard. The ball was passed right to Paul's path.
Paul followed my instructions. He ran through the space Yousuf had opened up and was now in a 1v1 against the goalkeeper as I faced off against two opponents. A striker was up front, and one defender was attracted by Yousuf.
Paul shot a clumsy shot but still managed to roll the ball into the net with some luck.
"Brilliant," Hermann Gerland marveled at Maxi's spatial awareness and quick reaction. He immediately started to applaud.
The match continued in a stalemate. FC Wacker München scored a goal, and then 1860 München responded. In the last minute, the score was 4:4.
The music started playing: "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
Both teams defended until Maxi advanced near the enemy penalty area and was suddenly fouled by an anxious defender.
He knew how terrifying Maxi was.
The result was an indirect free kick from the left side of the goal.
Only 10 seconds left to play.
Yousuf stood in front of the ball and rolled it forward a few centimeters to let Maxi shoot.
The entire wall of 1860 München jumped as high as possible, hoping to block the ball.
What they didn't expect was that Maxi, with a huge grin on his face, shot a very low ball that barely left the ground to the lower left corner.
The ball went into the net, and everyone started to celebrate.
Hermann Gerland was even more impressed by Maxi, seeing the mentality of a tiger in him. To be able to shoot a free kick into the lower corner under such pressure at his age was remarkable.
"That is terrifying. Very terrifying."
With that goal, 1860 only had the kickoff left. They shot, but Maxi stretched out his foot and blocked the shot.
Soon after that block, the siren sounded, and all of FC Wacker München cheered.
"BERLIN! BERLIN! WIR FAHREN NACH BERLIN!"
They sang the song often sung by people advancing to the finals, originating from the DFB-Pokal final held in Berlin's Olympiastadion.
It shares the same name as the stadium in Munich.
After the match, there was a break of an hour and a half. The final would begin at 1:00 p.m.
Maxi relaxed, eating some snacks and drinking a bottle of water while chatting with Isa.
Time flew by quickly, and it was soon 12:59. All players lined up to enter the field.
The names of everyone were announced as they entered the pitch.
When everyone was on the pitch, the referee blew the whistle.
The game started.
The kickoff was taken by Maxi, but he missed.
In the first 4 minutes, nothing major happened as the Bayern players feared Maxi. They knew that if they weren't careful, he could easily score for FC Wacker München.
They passed around, mostly trying to find a clear route with few dangers.
In the 6th minute, it happened. The Bayern youth team played a tiki-taka style, and the ball reached their striker while the defender from FC Wacker München was negligent.
This continued, and Bayern scored another goal in the 10th minute.
In the last few seconds, Maxi finally intercepted a pass. He immediately accelerated through a gap between two defenders and shot at the goal.
The ball went swiftly into the net. Maxi immediately ran and picked up the ball, but Bayern was now even more focused on not losing it.
Maxi couldn't do anything until the final whistle blew.
He was defeated, not due to his own performance but because of his teammates' limitations.
After the match, Maxi lay exhausted on the pitch with his hands in front of his eyes.
He almost cried but managed to suppress it.
Maxi was sad. He hated losing. He hated this feeling. He hated it intensely.
After the match, the award ceremony began.
FC Wacker München received a silver trophy for placing second.
In the individual awards, Maxi excelled. He won the scorer trophy, the goal trophy, the assist trophy, and the best player trophy.
With that, the tournament was over.
As Maxi walked up to the audience, he was stopped by an old man. The old man was Hermann Gerland.
"Don't be sad, little guy. I have an offer for you. Take this lollipop and listen to me," Hermann Gerland said in what he thought was a gentle tone.
But Maxi was terrified. Hermann Gerland looked exactly like the person his mother had warned him about—a stranger offering sweets in exchange for something before kidnapping him.
Maxi's brain raced, and he knew he needed to escape.
"Look, there's no cookie there," Maxi exclaimed, pointing in a random direction.
Hermann Gerland was confused and looked there.
Seeing this, Maxi ran past Hermann Gerland and toward his mother.
Hermann Gerland saw this and realized he had been tricked.
He was embarrassed to be outsmarted by a 7-year-old.
His old body tried to catch up with Maxi.
When he arrived in front of him, he saw Sophie with a stern look.
Maxi exclaimed, "MOM! THAT'S THE GUY WHO WANTS TO KIDNAP ME!"
"Wait, aren't you Hermann Gerland, coach of Bayern's second team?" Carlos asked, confused.
"Yes, I am. Your son misunderstood me. I wanted to invite him to Bayern," Hermann Gerland said, panting. He knew who Carlos was from Maxi's information.