Reincarnated As A Footballer - 7 Ball Control, Stamina and the Weak Foo

“Hey boy!! Pass it!! Over here!!” shouted a middle-aged man.

Immediately the one who asked for the pass received it. After seeing that, the defending team’s goalkeeper was shocked as it came crossing three defenders in between the one receiving and the one passing. That man, with the ball, was now standing outside the penalty box. As soon as he received it, he sprinted towards the goal and shot it with a lot of power.

The ball looked like it was about to go to the top right-hand corner of the goal but luckily/unluckily it missed.

“Ah!! Sorry, boy! I thought I had it under my control! Even then, what a pass it was! Never did I think that you would be able to pass it to me from that position! Still, I had a lot of fun this past month! Who would have thought that it would go by in a flash!”

“Come on now Mr. Olsen. We still have time left! Let us try and win this and let this match be my parting gift.” said a boy who was around 142 centimeters.

Yes. It was Vinod and he was twelve by then. He was currently in Norway and this was common for him — To get trained with the clubs in the lower divisions of the Footballing Pyramid (thanks to Greg aka Sir Alex) during his vacations. This time, it was a club in Oslo. This was recommended by Greg after he was eleven. When he was eleven they went to England and Germany, and now they were in Norway during his Winter Vacations. They were in Brazil for his previous summer vacation and it was a great experience for Vinod as the play styles, physique, tactics, and cultures were different in every place he visited.

As soon as Greg became his coach, he received an upgrade to his system. It stated that whenever he would be with his coach, may it be training or playing matches, his grasping capacity would increase exponentially. And as for Greg coming to India, not all of his family members took it well.

“He is, after all, a kid! Why would you indulge his fantasies and ask a personal coach to come all the way from England, Mahesh? You do understand that he is the heir to our country’s if not the world’s largest pharma companies, right? Do you understand the severity of this issue? What would others think if I say that one of my grandsons is a footballer? You tell me no?” was the first reaction from Vinod’s grandmother.

She loved Vinod but this was one thing she could not accept as she thought that playing sports to earn a living would undermine their social status. A typical Indian household indeed!

Now coming back to the present, it was an intraclub match of reds and whites, where Vinod was with the whites. It was in the final minutes and they were trailing by two goals The goalkeeper restarted the match with a long kick and the ball was with the reds now. As soon as they received it, they started running towards the white goal aiming for another goal. It was a very quick counter and by now, nearly six of the red team’s players were within 35 yards of the white team’s goal. As things kept looking good for the reds, a tackle came in from a white team’s defender which was successful too.

Now the ball was with the white team’s defender and he sent out a long pass to the main striker of the whites – Mr. Olsen. As soon as Mr. Olsen received the ball, both he and Vinod started running towards the red team’s goal. Just before the penalty area, he gave a chipped pass to Vinod towards the left-hand side of the penalty area.

Vinod, not missing this opportunity, went in front and hit a finesse shot. The ball curled into the top right-hand corner and it was a splendid goal. Only two minutes were remaining and the score was now two goals to three (2-3). The goal was so well struck that to any onlooker who saw that goal it was as if the ball went into the goal in slow motion. With a draw in sight, the morale of the white was high now.

The game resumed and now the reds were playing safely – they were parking the bus, even though it was an intrasquad game. This caused all the white team players to move up and literally, the entire white team except their goalkeeper was in the red team’s half. Everyone was brimming with vigorous fighting spirit. That was when Vinod noticed something. Even though all the red team players were in their half, the ones beside their goalkeeper were not the defenders, but the players who were the most tired. Soon all the alarms started ringing inside his head as this lead to only one possible conclusion — A final minute counter-attack.

The very next minute, the red team’s counter-attack started as all the red team’s players except for the ones beside the goalkeeper started rushing frantically after one of their players kicked the ball high into the other team’s half. There were nearly eight players or so running to the white team’s goal and it looked as if the red team were about to score another goal. But kudos to the white team’s defense. They regrouped immediately and slowly cut off the various pass routes to the red team’s striker who was having the ball. He was now near the penalty area and as he was about to shoot he noticed that the goalkeeper was unusually very close to him.

Even though he could have used a feint and gone past the keeper to score the goal, he chose the safer option with which he thought that the goal was a for sure one — a pass to his right winger who was near the sideline as he only would have to kick the ball in the empty goal behind him. But that was what cost the red team the final goal which would have sealed the entire match in their favour. As he passed it to the right winger, the right winger received it only to discover that the ball was cleared by a white team’s player which was Vinod. After a super fast sprint from one end of the stadium to another, Vinod was lucky enough to intercept the ball on time and clear it. Although the danger was not completely thwarted, the whites could relax for the moment.

[Shit!! Now I am totally and completely exhausted! Damn this system! Why am I not able to increase my stamina as fast as my other attributes? It is more like I have to put two times the effort than a normal person to increase my stamina.]

Yes, this was one of Vinod’s weaknesses – his stamina. Now, he was only able to go all out for about forty-five minutes or so in the entire game. Even though increasing his stamina was one of the more important parts in his training regimen, he was not able to increase it as good as some of his other traits. After clearing the ball, he slowly went on to the center of the pitch and only one red team player (who also was quite tired) was in between him and the red team goal.

The corner was taken. It was a beautifully executed corner as the ball went on to the tallest player on the red side who headed it beautifully onto the bottom left, only to find that the goalkeeper had dived and punched the ball onto his right. The ball now was free and a red team player quickly ran towards it and once again tried to give an assist to the tall guy, this time only to be blocked by Olsen.

Olsen quickly took the ball and as he was about to pass the ball to someone around him, he saw that the red team were man-marking everyone near him and were applying immense pressure. Then he noticed Vinod near the center and kicked the ball as hard as possible. The ball was kicked so hard that it reached the middle of the red team’s half and it appeared as if it was going to be out of bounds by passing through the sideline on the right-hand side of the pitch.

Vinod not leaving this chance ran as hard as possible and luckily stopped the ball before going out of bounds. Then he ran towards the red goal with the other red team’s player running closely behind him. As he reached towards the edge of the penalty area, even the goalkeeper started running towards him and the other player who was behind him had caught up to him.

Vinod, in order to stop the keeper in his tracks, ran forward with his maximum speed towards him and slowly nudged the ball using the outside of his foot. The keeper then immediately lunged towards his left only to discover that Vinod at that spur of that moment kicked the ball towards his left using the inside of his foot and some free space was available [1]. But by now the white team’s player was in front of him trying to defend while the others were coming back to help him. As he tried to perform a feint once more, a cold voice was heard in his head –

[REQUESTING USER TO REST! IF USER RUNS MORE, CHANCES OF GETTING A SEVERE INJURY WILL BE INCREASED TO 95%!]

Hearing this, Vinod quickly took a shot from his left foot – his weaker foot. As the ball was shot, it went towards the left-hand side of the goal only to hit the crossbar and come back onto the pitch. This now was cleared by the red team player who was marking him and the game was over. Vinod’s team lost the game two goals to three (2-3) and the most dejected player on the pitch was Vinod.

[Damn!!! The only two things which I stress more on my regimen came back to haunt me once again!! Damn this system!! Why is it always happening to me???]

Yes, this was Vinod’s yet another weakness — his weak foot shooting ability. So, after the game, he was given some advice by both the manager of the club as well as by Greg. After the advice sessions were over, both Greg and Vinod went back to the hotel only to discover that a man in suits was approaching them. He said

“Hello, sir! My name is Alexander Larsen and I am a scout from Vålerenga FC, a club playing at the first tier football league of Norway – Tippeligaen. Would you like to give your lad a trial at our club?”