Chapter 13: Second Trial Match; Team A vs Team C
Chapter 13: Second Trial Match; Team A vs Team C
Both teams trudged off the field with one side distraught while the other side joyous and they both went to the stands.
Jason went to sit in the stands with his team and picked up a water bottle from his bag before chugging down more than half the content as though the match he had just played wasn\'t as intense as some of the professional games he had played in his previous reality, it was more nerve-wracking than ever, but now that the match was over, he was relieved.
With 2 assists and a goal as well as his level of involvement in the game, he knew that even if he didn\'t play the next game, he was still going to be guaranteed some scouting options unless the scouts watching didn\'t like his face, but he didn\'t think something like that would happen.
One of the coaches came to where Jason and his teammates were and told them that they had an hour to rest before their match against team A which would be the finale of the football trials.
One hour later, team C and A were back on the field and ready to go at each other.
Team C\'s starting players were all the same as the players who started the last match except for one exception.
Jason was on the bench this time and starting in his place was Jerry. Jason picked this guy to replace him as he suddenly didn\'t feel like starting the match against Team A.
He knew that those guys from team A would put more focus on him if he played and he wouldn\'t be as free to play as he wanted if that was the case, so he\'d rather come in as a substitute in the second half when the players that would be marking him would be exhausted.
The match started with team C being the one to kick off.
They passed the ball among themselves while looking for an opening to get in behind the defenders, but Team A stood strong and did not leave any open space, and before long, team C lost the ball.
This became a back-and-forth between both teams with passes moving around and the occasional shot, but a goal didn\'t come until the 13th minute.
Team C was on the attack once again while passing the ball smoothly and concisely among themselves in the opponent\'s half of the field when Jerry suddenly noticed Nico shaking off his marker and making a cutting run inside while sending a meaningful glance his way.
Jerry didn\'t disappoint and sent a swift grounded pass into the space between the defenders while Nico appeared behind them to receive the pass while cutting into the box with a smooth flick of his foot not wasting time trapping the ball.
The defenders from team A quickly gave chase, but they weren\'t able to do much as Nico was already approaching the goalkeeper.
With a curling shot around the goalkeeper, the ball ended in the back of the net and the score was now 1 nil in favor of team C.
After that goal, it was like the floodgates had been opened and goals started flying in from both sides.
Team A first equalized from a corner that was headed in by one of their CB\'s in the 16th minute, then Team C scored another goal from a pass that had found Daniel in the box.
He had made a turn while holding off his marker and then firing the ball into the back of the net making the score 2 : 1 and putting his team back in the lead in the 18th minute, but team A wasn\'t giving up on the game and put another ball in from a cross to the striker who headed the ball past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net in the 21st minute.
Team C\'s third goal came from George who had fired in a powerful grounded ball into the goal from outside the penalty area in the 25th minute.
Team A\'s right winger had escaped from Trevor in the 29th minute before cutting into the box and using a couple of stepovers to escape from Kevin before firing the ball past Aarons and equalizing for his team just before halftime.
Jason was watching all this with a stunned look in the stands as he hadn\'t expected his team to be able to keep up with this barrage of goals from team A and even the one taking the lead first, but more importantly, he could see that both teams had given up on defense and were only looking to outscore the opponents which was why there was way too much space for both teams to get into and score against the opponent.
Whichever team lost its attacking touch first would lose with the way the match was going and he was hoping that it wouldn\'t be his team, but while he was thinking the referee blew the whistle signifying halftime and the players walked off the field to rest before the match continued.
This time there wasn\'t any argument on how the substitutions would go as they had already settled the matter before the match even started.
Orland would be coming in for Daniel, Trevor would be coming off for Jayden, Terrence would be coming on for Carlos, and Nico would be coming off for Jason, and all the substitutions except for Jason coming on for Nico would be done at halftime.
Jason didn\'t want to be subbed in yet, so he had told Nico to hold on till the 10th minute in the second half and Nico wasn\'t going to reject more playing time, so he didn\'t mind.
Soon ten minutes were over, and the players went back on the field for the second half with team A kicking off in the second half.