The next day.
By 2pm Vincent freshened up, got dressed and carried his sports bag out the room waiting for Bogani to finish so they can head to the Luminous Arena. After eating light lunch they walked for about 5 minutes before entering a bus to the Arena which took about 20 minutes since there was no traffic.
They reached the pitch around 2:45pm. Mr Witsel already showed them the direction, since it was just a direct trip with the bus. On arrival, he met Witsel waiting for them at the entrance of the arena, who took them through the security and checkpoints.
They headed straight for the field, which already contained more than 20 players doing warm ups and some coaches discussing something with a man who seemed like the boss around here.
Vincent and Bogani quickly changed and entered the pitch doing some warm up drills with Bogan as Witsel had directed as he walked towards the boss like man. Both doing some stretches, then running along the side line doing some forward and backward sprints.
After feeling pumped and active, Vincent decided to juggle some balls to increase his leg flexibility. After sometime, he and Bogani did some quick one touch passing between themselves.
Vincent was about to suggest a one vs one when a whistle was blown by one of the coaches.
"Gather around everyone ," the coach shouted with a loud voice.
The players then put a hold on all the I activities and gathered together for the announcements in which the duo were amongst the crowd.
"Are Madu Vincent and Michael Bogani here?" The coach hollered while miss pronouncing their names.
"Yes sir." They both shout in unison raising their hands as they stepped out of the crowd in response.
"Hmm, well I guess you have been informed on the details and importance of this match to you by Witsel over there, as you are still on probation." He asked blandly as he referred to Mr Witsel.
"Yes, he did," Vincent replied seriously while ignoring the murmur of the players.
"Well boys, this here is Madu Romano Vincent and Michael Bogani they will temporarily be joining the reserve team against the starters," the coach addressed the team.
"Please welcome him and make him feel at home here at K.R.C GENK. "The coach said, after which the crowd applauded for Vincent.
"For others this is just a slightly different training match, since you will be playing for 90 minutes and playing a match with rules and fouls. So do your best everyone." He said before leaving the briefed players on the pitch.
After some brief warm up again for everyone the match was about to start, with Vincent and Bogani as the only Substitute for the reserve team.
*******
TEAM A (Line-up )
Formation: (5-3-2)
GK- Marco Bizot(1)
CB- Omar Colley(15)
CB- Jakub Brabec(2)
CB- Sebastien Dewaest(6)
LB- Jere Uronen(21)
RB- Timothy Castagne(41)
CM- Alejandro Pozuelo(24)
LM- Bryan Heynen(28)
RM- Sander Berge(25)
CF- Thomas Buffel(19)
CF- Mbwanna Samatta(77)
TEAM B (Line-up)
Formation: (4-3-3)
GK- Matthew Ryan(26)
CB- Dries Wouters(4)
CB- Rubin Seigers(23)
LB- Bojan Nastic(3)
RB- Joseph Aidoo(6)
CM- Ruslan Malinovskyi(18)
RM- Paolo Sabak(20)
LM- Pierre Zebli (33)
LW- Leandro Trossard(14)
RW- Jose Naránjo(11)
CF- Jean-Paul Boëtius(9)
********
With the assistant coach(Rudy Cossey) acting as the coach of the reserve team and the other assistant manager coaching over the senior team, the match began at sound of the whistle.
Team A kicked was the team that kicked off the match .
The early minutes of the game were a scuffle was in deep half of the pitch, with team A passing the ball amongst the defenders and midfielders well, trying to find space to begin an attack while trying not to lose the ball.
The situation repeated itself continuously in the early minutes of the game.
Until team A number(28) lost the ball to team B's number(18) due to laxity, who immediately began an attack passing the ball infield to Pierre Zebli while the team's attackers started making runs towards the opposing box.
Pierre quickly found Trossard who was on the left wing waiting for a pass to his feet and with a few stepovers got rid of his marker taking off down the wing with the ball and with Team A's no.15 hot on his heels he tried to fake a shot but Omar was unfazed he could only pass to Ruslan who was open.
Ruslan received the ball mid-stride at the top edge of the box, he did a quick body feint evading Pozuelo and flicked the ball to Jean who created space for himself, immediately he made a through pass to Jose in box as he was open, Omar had left his position sensing the danger with Jean.
Jose trapped the ball and fired a shot to the net but the ball was caught easily by the Bizot as the shot didn't have any finesse in it.
Swiftly team A began a counter, Bizot sent the ball to Uronen team A's left back, he started making a forward run down the wings, Uronen sent a sweeping pass to Pozuelo who was free.
Pozuelo and the forwards charged forward, it was three against four defenders, Wouters immediately charged at him. Pozuelo with slick legs did an elastico leaving him the dust, approaching the edge of the box he faked a shot causing Rubin to a attempt a block. The ball was actually lob pass to Samatta who pushed himself off the ground with a powerful leap and smashed the ball past the stunned goalie with a powerful header.
GOALLL!! AT '30'
Although this was training, everyone was still competitive.
Vincent and Bogani were observing from the bench analysing any potential weaknesses to take advantage of.
"Damn, these guys are on a whole other level. This even when they are training, not playing with desperation like on a normal match." Vincent exclaimed in his mind.
"This is just the Jupiler pro league, it's not even in the top five leagues in the world. I still have a long way to go, but with the system I will surpass them." Vincent sighed but became more convincted in his heart to achieve his dream.