NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25: 3-0 Up At Half-Time
The cheers of the 26,000+ fans were deafening for the players who had never experienced such an atmosphere.
The cuidad abanca balaidos was the stadium where the final was being played. The stadium had been filled to the brim as this was the peak of youth football in Spain.
The match was between the big dogs ,Real Madrid u19s who had won the competition 7 times and the underdogs,Valencia u19s who had won the competition once and it being in the late 2000s,2007 to be precise.
The match was a no brainer for anyone watching it that Real Madrid u19 were the favourites in the game.
But why were they still watching a match that seemed to be already set in stone.
Because people liked the story of underdogs winning.
Izan who was on the field for the warm up session noticed a lot of stares from the people in the press seat section.
It seemed he had drawn a bit of attention because of his recent performances.
Izan looked away and was saddened as he looked at the crowd.
This was because Komi,Hori and Olivia couldn't attend the match.
The match was being played in Vigo which was about 9 hours from Valencia by car.
The warm up session had been Izan's opportunity to snoop around with the snooping function.
He had checked the Player information of some of the players who seemed to be in the starting eleven but the ones who caught his attention were 3 people.
PLAYER INFO
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NAME:[FRAN HERNANDEZ]
AGE:[17]
HEIGHT:[1.85m(6'0)]
PROFESSION:[FOOTBALLER]
STATUS:[YOUTH PLAYER]
TEAM: Valencia Under-19s
SYSTEM EVALUATION: [Youth prospect]
PLAYER RATING:[67/100]
POSITION:[Centre back]
POTENTIAL:[87]
STATS
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Speed:62
Body control:63
Spatial awareness: 64
Technique: 67
Shooting:57
Passing: 64
Body strength: 72
Defending [new]: 74
Weak foot strength: 2 stars
Skill move :2 stars
Izan stared at the defender who he knew was probably going to give him a hard time during the match.
The next player was a midfielder by the name of Olal Joseph Nkuweze who had an Ovr of 68 which was the same as Izan's
And the last player was someone Izan saw needed to be shut down if they had any chance at winning the game.
A striker who had an Overall rating of 72 called Mikel Bartra.
Izan stopped snooping after a while because the rest of the players were nothing eye-catching as the lowest in them had an OVR of 62 whiles the one behind the 3 players Izan had just mention had an OVR of 66.
They were soon done with the warm up session and headed towards the dressing room.
Izan who had no idea what awaited him trudged towards the room. Coach Moreno had held off on naming the starting 11 the day before as he said he would do it today.
"Okay guys,in goal Raul jiminez will replace Vic abril.
Left back will be David nuñez and right back will be Lucas Tènas as always
Andranik chust and Javier bueso will be playing in a double pivot with Pietro in the attacking midfield role.
The front three will be Pablo neri, Wissam Martin and Hugo de marc"
Coach Moreno concluded before walking off.
The lineup made some the players look at the Coach to see if they heard it right.
Where was Izan's name. Izan was also thinking the same thing. "Did I offend him or something" he thought as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
Not to be arrogant or anything,but Izan knew that he was by far the best player in the team and none of the players could refute it,not even pietro.
Coach Moreno named the subs and this time Izan heard his name. He was still thinking why the Coach didn't want to start him.
He wanted to voice out his opinions but stopped as he didn't want to ruin the atmosphere before the match so he kept quiet.
The players stepped onto the pitch after a brief tactical session. The captains of both sides went for a toss to which Pietro won.
He chose a side and gave the kickoff to the other team.
The Madrid striker,Mikel Bartra stood beside the ball. He waited till the official blew his whistle to signify the start of the match.
[COMMENTATOR POV]
' Hello everyone and good evening to you all. My name is Andres piero and I'm your commentator for this electrifying Final as Real Madrid u19s goes against Valencia U19s.
We see that the lineup for the Madrid u19 stays the same but there has been one peculiar change which surprised me and I'm sure those in the press seat were surprised as well.
Izan, Valencia u19s No.21 who is arguably their best player of the tournament is no where to be found in the starting 11 as he seems to be on the bench for this one.
I don't know what is going on in the mind of Coach Moreno but I hope whatever he has planned goes well.
Now coming back to the match we can see that possession has been exchanged as the Valencia u19 team is now in possession.
They're playing at the back and I wouldn't do that if I we- , 'oh' nice tackle.
Madrid u19 now have the ball.
This is a chance to pull ahead and 'uh'
Goooooooooooaaaaaallllllllllaaaaasooo
Mikel Bartra, Real Madrid U19's no. 9 had put them in front.
Too many touches at the back led to a a well timed tackle by the madrid u19 midfielder who then released the ball to Mikel who wouldn't miss such a one on one chance with the keeper.
4 minutes played and its 1-0 for Real Madrid u19 '
The Madrid u19 players returned to the pitch after the celebrations. The Valencia u19 team tried to regroup and pull one back after the kickoff.
The Real Madrid u19 players however were defending splendidly. They thwarted all the goal scoring opportunities of the Valencia u19 team.
Pietro would occasionally try to break through on his own but that would prove futile as the Madrid defence was compact when on the defensive.
The covered any gap or space that could be used against them.
The Valencia u19 players played around the Real Madrid team for about 7 minutes without losing possession.
The match had gone stale after the first goal as one side released a flurry of attacks and the other side defending spectacularly.
The Madrid u19 team waited for a chance to counter and they finally got their chance when Javier bueso's controlled pass couldn't reach Andranik
Garcia, Real Madrid u19's left winger exploded into a frightening pace making a run forward. The midfielder who intercepted the pass was Olal Joseph.
With a look upfront,he sent a stunning through ball to Garcia who trapped the ball nicely.
Not slowing down, Garcia came one on one with Mark. Mark who was contemplating whether to foul or try to stall for his teammates to regroup was suddenly passed as Garcia knocked the ball around him.
Garcia who evaded Mark's attempt to hold him went around him and took the ball.
Now one on one with the keeper, Garcia raised his leg to shoot,but faked the shot when Raul jiminez had gotten in position to stop the ball.
Garcia after passing Raul,kicked the ball into an empty net before running and sliding towards the corner flag.
The stadium erupted into cheers as the Madrid u19 fans exploded into life once more.
The second goal was scored in the 22nd minute and all the people watching the game were now thinking how many goals Madrid would score as they were expecting an onslaught.
They spectators were right as Real Madrid u19 would score a few minutes after the 2nd goal.
A splendid counter attack ended in a corner for the 'la Fabricás'. The Valencia players who were relieved the chance wasn't scored were lacking focus.
The Madrid outlet took a quick corner which was met first time in a header by Fran hernandez, the Real Madrid u19 defensive leader.
The ball rustled the net as the Valencian u19 Goalkeeper, Raul jiminez had to pick the ball out of his net for the third time today.
Coach Moreno was standing on the touchline with his head in his hands. He hadn't expected his team to receive such a battering in the first half, and the half wasn't even over.
He signaled his players to play defensively for the remainder of the first half.
The Valencian u19 team did just that as they pulled several players back except those that could help on a counter attack.
The game became worse for the Valencia u19 team when Madrid got another goal from a counter once more.
Lucky for them,Mark had saved them unknowingly by setting an offside trap.
The linesman who saw this waited after the goal before raising his flag for offside.
The match continued like this as Real Madrid u19 team continued to attack relentlessly as they wanted to kill the game off.
Luck seemed to avoid them as their shot were either blocked by Raul or hitting the posts.
The referee who had added 2 minutes to ordinary time looked at his watched before blowing the whistle to signal the end of the first half.
Izan stood up from the bench as sitting for for the first half had made his butt sore.
He stretched a bit before heading towards the dressing room. He didn't know what to feel.
Whether to be angry at his teamates or at his Coach. At some point in the first half, Izan thought of the possibility of the matched being sold or fixed.
The rest of the players came to meet Izan in the dressing room playing a game on his phone.
They thought what nerves he had to be playing a game when they were 3 goals down in a final.
Izan didn't pay heed to the stares but rather looked at his phone. Izan staring at his phone was just a facade which the players saw.
Izan in truth had opened the system and was contemplating if he should upgrade his stats before he came onto the pitch as he stared at the holographic interface.
His team were 3 goals down and it would take a stroke of genius to do it.
After much deliberation,Izan decided to do it because he wanted to win this Competition and get that off his bucket list as he didn't want to be held down by this competition again next year.
PLAYER INFO
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NAME:[IZAN MIURA HERNANDEZ]
AGE:[14]
HEIGHT:[1.80m(5'11)]
PROFESSION:[FOOTBALLER]
STATUS:[YOUTH PLAYER]
TEAM: Valencia Under-19s
SYSTEM EVALUATION: [Indispensable to Valencia U19 team]
PLAYER RATING:[68/100]
POSITION:[Wing forward/Attacking midfielder]
POTENTIAL:[89]
LEGEND POINTS:[51,500/67,000 to lv5]
STAT POINTS:[57]
STATS
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Speed:70
Body control:65
Spatial awareness: 71
Technique: 65
Shooting:66
Passing: 69
Body strength: 68
Weak foot strength: 4 stars
Skill move :5 stars
SKILLS POSSESSED
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Stepovers:92% Completion
La croqueta:77% completion
Cruyff turn:84%Completion
Roulette: 79% Completion
Traits
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Izan started with his passing stat as both of it needed one major boost. Izan added [1] stat point to short passing and did the same for the remaining ones.
Passing:69>70
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Short passing:69>70
Long passing: 69>70
Crossing:69>70
Izan went to the body strength attribute next and upgraded it. He added [4] stat points to strength and [3] stat points to shot power.
Body strength:68>70
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Stamina:70
Strength:66>70
Shot power:67>70
Izan after the body strength attribute went to his Technique attribute. He added [5] stat points to both Dribbling and ball control.
Technique:65>70
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Dribbling:65>70
Ball control:65>70
Izan moved on to his Body control attribute. He added [2] stat points to agility and [7] each to jumping and balance before he added [5] to reactions.
Body control :69.5
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Agility :68>70
Jumping :63>70
Reations:63>68
Balance:63>70
[System runs off the 65.5 to 70 for the body control attribute]. "Huh that works too" Izan thought.
Now Izan had used [41] stat points out of the remaining [57] stat points.
Izan now came back and clicked on his shooting Attribute as it would really help in converting the most difficult chances into goals.
There were [16] stat points remaining. Izan added [7] stat points to finishing and [6]stat points to Long shots before adding the remaining [3] to penalties
Shooting:69.25
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Finishing:65>72
Long shot:64>70
Freekick:70
Penalties: 62>65
Izan was a bit sad that his shooting couldn't break the 70 rating. Izan switched to the stat screen and his stats looked something like this.
STATS
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Speed:70
Body control:65>70
Spatial awareness: 71
Technique: 65>70
Shooting:66>69.25
Passing: 69> 70
Body strength: 68>70
'Ding' [Host OVR has gone from 68 to 70]
'Ding' [ Hidden achievement unlocked]
Get to an OVR of 70 in 6 months after gaining the system.
Rewards: 20 stats points
+1 A grade injury prevention drug
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Izan smiled at the hidden achievement.
He put his phone down after Coach Moreno entered the dressing room.
Coach Moreno stared at him before.....