Football Lord - Chapter 30

Tony and John were respectively substituted to replace the attacking midfielder and left winger of man city.

Coach Taylor also substituted a striker to replace the defensive midfielder of the team, as he simultaneously used all his substitutions in one go.

Tony was to play in central midfield, John simply replaced the Left winger and the new striker was to join the other striker upfront as they changed there formation to a 4-4-2 as they actively wanted at least one goal to draw the match.

The 3 new players passed the information from Coach Taylor about the change in formation and tactics as they settled into the match.

Immediately Tony came on the pitch he convinced himself that his team wasn’t going to lose the match by any means, either they drew the match or they won it.

More importantly this was the first time his family came to watch him in a competitive match of the academy and his sense of pride didn’t want the first match they watched to end in a defeat at his home stadium.

He immediately went to work as he used his eyes and the support of Rose to understand the flow of the match look for chances to score or create a goal.

He was playing as a central midfielder that was to hold the midfield and also to create chances for others. Rose would only inform him if she noticed a teammate that was free in a somewhat attacking position or there was a favorable position for him to shoot from.

Tony and the other central midfielder moved together in tandem. Tony occupied the left central channel while the other midfielder occupied the other right central channel.

They worked hand in hand in trying to create chances and to stop the occasional counters from Everton. He now had a defensive skill of C- so he was not totally useless in defending.

The Everton players sat deep in there own half when they were not with possession and quickly tried to counter when they got back possession.

Man city continued to look for a chance to balance the score line as they probed for clear chances. Tony was already in the flow of the match but was yet to create a clear cut chance for himself or his teammates.

Around the 75th minute he finally created a good chance for John who he put through the defense with a good through pass into the left side of the box.

John rushed with the ball into the box, as he approached the keeper from the left side of the box as he also tried to avoid the pressure from the Everton right back.

John saw that the angle was tight and that he had almost no chance of scoring a goal from there as the keeper and defenders closed down the space to reduce his options.

He had only the option to pass the ball towards the right of the post and pray that one of the man city players would be there to tap the ball into the net.

The ball rolled towards the right side of the post away from the keeper, but he was unlucky as it was an Everton defender that got to the ball first and cleared the ball out.

After that chance Tony still tried to get involved in the build up play as the man city players passed amongst themselves when they had the ball looking for an opportunity to work the ball into the net.

The defense of Everton was extremely compact as they closed the space between themselves frustrating the city players as they gave them little space to work with.

Man city probed for a while and anytime they lost possession about three of there players closed down on the player who got the ball and cut of the Everton players option to counter.

Possession was won and lost a couple of time, as both teams battled it out as they tried to both win the match.

Around the 86thminute, Tony had about 3 different Everton players between him and the Everton goalkeeper. He looked around for a player positioned close to goal that he could create a chance for but didn’t see anyone that was free.

He attempted to take a shot from outside the 18 yard box with his right foot. As he swung his legs to take a shot, he saw the Everton player in front of him dive towards him to block the shot.

He immediately faked the shot as he rolled the ball a little to the left and dodged the lunge from the Everton player.

Immediately he dodged the first player and was trying to balance his feet to drive the ball forward, the next defender came towards him.

Tony immediately performed some ball feints as he hovered his right foot above the ball and swayed his body a little from left to right, while he waited for the defender to create a gap. The defender made the first move as he threw his leg in other to hit the ball, Tony made an extra feint with the ball as he pushed the ball to the left of the defender and evaded the other way.

As he went past the defender and was rushing towards the ball, the last defender in front of him and the left back of Everton also tried to close down on the ball too.

Tony was closer to the ball so he got to the ball before the two defenders that were now closing down on him got close to him.

He looked at the player that was directly in front of the keeper, before he feinted with the ball before he quickly pushed the ball between the open legs of defender who was trying to stretch to get the ball.

After pushing the ball between his legs he quickly rushed and went behind him, while the left back that was also trying to get the ball tried to follow his movements.

All this actions appeared to have happened over a long period of time, but they had all happened in a few seconds.

Tony was now directly facing the goalkeeper while the last defender was now by his right side trying to get the ball.

He shifted the ball to his left foot away from the left back by his right who was urgently struggling with Tony to get the ball away from the keeper, while Tony was still moving towards the keeper.

The keeper came forward towards the ball in other to narrow Tony’s shooting angle. But Tony quickly used the inside of his left foot to hit the ball towards the bottom left corner of the net as the keeper stretched his hands and legs in other to block the ball.

The keeper’s leg slightly brushed the ball but it still went into the bottom left corner of the net.