Football Lord - Chapter 29

At half time the players all went to the locker room to rest. Coach Taylor encouraged the players to keep on doing the things they were doing.

He asked the players to go back to there preferred formation of 4-5-1, with the attacking midfielder going back to his position as the link between the striker and the other midfielders.

After about 10 minutes the time to resume the match came as the players that started the first half all came back to take there positions.

Man City kicked off the second half, as they tried to re-establish there game rhythm.

Everton stayed behind the ball as it was obvious that they wanted to play on the counter.

Both teams had a couple of half chances as they struggled to score a goal.

Man City played calmly and took there time in looking for the spaces to attack with when they had the ball. While Everton were mainly focused on using there speed on the Counter.

In football there are many factors that makes a good player or striker, but one factor that is mostly being underrated or overlooked was being lucky.

This luck usually showed itself with the players positional awareness and read of the game, as they positioned themselves where they could be more effective.

In the 55th minute, a midfielder of Everton was close to the 18 yard box of Man City, where he saw a space to shoot from.

He shot the ball towards the top right hand corner of the post. The keeper of man city dived towards the ball as he struggled to get hold of the ball, but could only punch the ball back outside towards the other players.

The ball went directly to the left winger of Everton who was perfectly positioned and unmarked. He quickly shot the ball into the net before the goalkeeper and players could react.

The Everton players were very happy and relieved as they celebrated there goal to make the scoreline 1:1.

The man city players hurriedly and dejectedly took the ball to the centre circle for the match to resume.

After the celebrations from the Everton players, the game finally resumed. Man City played with a sense of urgency as they probed forward in search of a quick goal to get back the lead.

The Everton players defended properly as they all stayed in there own half for the mean time, as man city could only get a couple of half chances and were mostly forced to take long Shots.

It was around the 63rd minute that after a failed attack from man city that Everton immediately hit man city on the counter.

Most of the man city players were in the Everton half of the pitch except for the goalkeeper and a central defender as they urgently tried to regain back there lead.

Man city lost possession to the right winger of Everton who Tony had seen with Rose’s system scanner had a speed skill of B-

The winger immediately used his speed to begin the counter as he ran with the ball into the half of man city from inside his own half.

The other players tried to catch up to him quickly but the winger was a little faster even as he ran with the ball.

The only central defender of man city could not immediately close him down as he could only try and force the attacking player down to the wings.

The winger continued to run as he constantly looked side ways to check for a pass to his teammates.

He was already getting close to the 18yard box of man city, as some of his teammates and defenders of man city tried to catch up to him.

When he got into the 18 yard box the central defender in front of him and another man city player from behind closed down on him.

He noticed that he no longer had any space to run forward, so he rolled the ball to his left were he saw his teams striker and a player of man city were rushing forward side by side together.

He could only gamble that his teammate would get the ball first as he passed the ball to his left away from the defenders that had already closed him down.

His team’s striker and the defender from man city immediately saw where the ball was going to, as they both lunged to try and hit the ball.

It was the Everton team striker that had the advantage as he slid a little bit sideways and forcefully hit the ball towards the net.

The goalkeeper of man city couldn’t follow the improvised shot as he could only watch and pray that the ball went out of the net.

A loud bang was heard, as the ball hit the cross bar and bounced downwards into the net as it changed the scoreline to 1:2 in favour of Everton.

The Everton players and there few fans in the stadium immediately exploded with excitement as they celebrated the beautiful goal from a counter.

The man city players were even more dejected than Before as they quietly looked and stared into space. The fans of man city and players could only sigh in discomfort as they conceeded an unexpected goal.

Tony was also on the sidelines and could only also sadly shake his head as it was truly a beautiful goal and no man city player could mainly be faulted for the goal.

The game later resumed as Tony and the man city players on the bench resumed there warmups.

The man city players on the pitch still tried to find a goal but were more careful as they were now more wary of a counter.

Both teams exchanged possession a few times as they both failed to find a goal.

The Everton players were now more than ever more focused on defending there lead as they tried to finish the match with the lead.

*****

The time ticked by, as around the 70th minute a substitution was made from man city…