Football Lord - Chapter 6

The second half began with the Striker passing the ball to Tony, Who immediately used that opportunity to pass the ball to John who was the left midfielder whose skill he wanted to copy by making 5 successful passes.

After his pass the ball was confidently passed around by his team mates before it came back to him again. The system used that opportunity to check for the best passing route easy enough for his current ability that could lead to a goal. But there was none as the whole of the black team where still in there on half defending.

Since he had no attacking passing, he used that chance to move towards the left wing before passing the ball again to John. Who still had no option going forward than to pass the ball back to him. After Tony received his pass, he looked around and decided to take a long pass back to his goalkeeper.

The goalkeeper used that opportunity to start the build up from the back forcing the black team out, before releasing a Longshot that gave possession to the black team who finally held possession for the ball and began there own probing.

‘Remember they would also be scoring things like off the ball movement and anticipation. So it’s important to try and read the game properly and be at the right place at the right time, even when you are defending’ The system reminded him.

Tony who was now on the defensive as his team regained and lost possession several times without any of teams necessarily having an advantage. After about fine minutes, Tony was given a pass, after which with the assistance of the system he noticed that John was free on the left wing. He immediately attempted an overhead pass of about 30 yards from his position to that of John.

But alas, his body failed to achieve what his mind wanted, as he horribly over hit the pass which led to a goal kick for the black team. ‘F**k! am such a horrible player’ he thought and sighed. John lifted his hand towards him to acknowledge his attempted pass to him.

After his bad pass, the system consoled him by saying ‘first of all you need to know that you were never a bad player, as all you lacked was the necessary talent and finesse to place the ball where you wanted it to go.

‘And secondly since you presently lack the necessary abilities of achieving accurate long passes, we should use quick and short passes to build up.’ Tony agreed and continued to play the match as no team had any advantage over the other.

Both team strikers had only gotten a long range shot of note which both keepers easily saved. After about 15 minutes of the game and the match had already reached a steady rhythm. Tony’s team went on the front foot as he tried to increase the tempo with the best of his abilities.

After receiving the pass in central midfield, he signaled to a fellow midfielder to immediately return his pass as a player immediately came to pressure him for the ball. He gave his teammate the ball and immediately ran forward to see the ball coming towards him.

After receiving the ball, he immediately started to run with the ball, as far as his body could let him, but he was fast. He was now close to the black teams 18yard box, so he began to slow down as he and system decided on the best approach to beat the oppositions defense.

He passed the ball to the right winger who was already trying to make a penetrative run into the oppositions box. The pass was to close to his teammates feet as it forced his right winger to slow down and take control of the ball, while the oppositions leftback was on already closing down on him.

He had no option than to pass the ball to the space in front of Tony, who was already moving behind the opposition left back position close to the other central defenders.

After Tony received the pass, the striker of his team was already raising his hand for the pass while the opposition defenders were all focused on Tony and the striker, he moved the ball towards the post while guiding the ball carefully.

The system then told Tony to pass it towards the Left winger who had silently arrived at the back of his striker without any defender marking him. Tony released the pass towards John who had enough time to blast the ball into the left side of the net, the keeper couldn’t get to the ball as he was in position to block that angle as he wasn’t expecting the shot to go that way.

John immediately ran to Tony to celebrate with him by hugging him and shouting to release stress, while there other teammates joined in the celebration. After a while they went back to there own half of the pitch for the restart.

Immediately after the referee signaled to resume play, The black team went on full offensive as almost all there players went forward to the blue team’s half in an attempt to score a goal.

While all the players of the blue team except the striker stayed back to defend. After long minutes of both teams trying to outplay each other. The blue team in about the 35th minute were able to come out of the own half with the ball in an attempt to reduce the pressure by attacking.

They passed the ball around for a while, with Tony making sure he completed his 5 passes to John in other to be able to later copy one of his skills later. After both teams tried to score without success, they black team began to urgently attack as they started to throw more players in for attack.

Tony advised his striker to still wait just outside of the offside trap. After a while the blue team gained possession and immediately went on the counter. Tony was running as fast as he could towards the right wing of the opposition box while signaling for a pass, as the opposition defenders tried to fallback while his teammates also ran forward for the counter.

A long pass finally came towards Tony, but the pass was to heavy as he found it difficult to adequately follow the speed of the ball. He decided to control the ball a little while still leaving the ball to roll forward towards the oppositions box, while he also tried to catch up to the ball before the defender. It was a two on two situation, with him and the striker of his team against a central defender and the goalkeeper of the black team.

He successful got to the ball before the defender while they were already in the opposition box. He had a tight angle to shoot but also the option of an assist to his striker.

In a split second he and the system decided it would be unwise for him to shoot and miss, while he had an easier option of a pass to his teammate who was unmarked.

Especially as they knew the Coaches will definitely be scoring the players on things like teamwork and him being an attacking midfielder, he immediately knew the best option was to pass to the striker.

He decidedly pretended to shoot the ball into the net, while he passed the ball to the front of the striker to his left. Both the defender and the keeper believed he would shoot so they promptly jumped to block his shooting angle, leaving it easy for the Striker to calmly tap the ball into the met before the arriving players could interfer.

After which he and Tony hugged each other as they ran towards the corner flag to celebrate with their teammates. After celebrating they went back to there position for the game to resume.

The black team were dejected as they passed the ball quickly, avoiding to hold the ball for too long as they passed the ball amongst themselves. After some minutes, possession eventually ended up back with the blue team as they passed the ball amongst themselves, until it ended up with their striker, who had no chance to shoot so he rolled the ball towards where he saw Tony running to.

The ball was passed to Tony who decided to try and shoot the ball into the net after seeing an opportunity and as it was at the edge of the 18 yard box of the opponent.

He placed his left foot right beside the ball while he swung his right foot effectively. The ball went directly towards the keeper, who could not catch it and it ended up being a corner kick. He was asked to go and take the corner kick, since they didn’t have a specialist on the team.

He placed the Ball on the pitch and looked up, before swinging his leg in an attempt to kick the ball into box where his teammates where expectantly waiting for there opportunity to nod the ball into the net.

But the ball went directly out of play to the stands behind the net, leading to heavy laughter from the family members in the stands, coaching staffs and even the players on the pitch and on the benches. Tony had no option than to also laugh as he jogged back to his position on the pitch.

The match resumed with both teams keeping and giving away possession without any clean opportunities coming by. Due to desperation, the black team later resulted in taking outside shots which were easily handled by the keeper or went off target.

In the remaining minutes Tony attempted two penetrative passes towards the striker and the right winger. But both chances didn’t result in a clear chance that led to a goal. As the half eventually ended up 2:0 in favour of the blue team. And the full time score was 3:2 In favour of the black team.

When the time was up, the referee blew the final whistle. As both teams went towards the bench to Join up with the players of the first half.

The families and friends who accompanied the players waited in the stands, As the coaching team was about to finish deciding on the players whose lives were about to change.