"A midfielder is in charge of creating the attack as well as helping the defense, it's not as simple as you think." Liam said as he crossed the ball to Byron.
"Should've asked Arthur, he's crazy." Byron thought to himself while panting.
"Arthur can't save you."
"Wait what?"
"MOVE," Liam shouted and Byron continued running with the ball.
For the remaining week till the Spring tournament both Liam and Byron trained hellishly while still keeping up with normal team training and school. Liam didn't know exactly how to shape Byron into a midfielder, however. The former striker played like he was upfront and that wasn't helping his case. "Don't go too far up, your job is to start. Not finish."
"Let's just continue tomorrow, Mrs. Johnson had to push all the tests down our neck today so we could successfully leave for the tournament." Byron stopped running.
"I had tests too you know."
"And yet look at our positions"
"FIIIINE, let's get the last bit in." Liam sighed as he walked toward the corner kick flag. "Perfectly volley it into the bottom left corner."
"Sounds easy enough." Byron readied himself., despite not still being the best player he could be he was improving at a fast pace. His usually over-calculated plays took half the time and his passing was on par with Silvestre's.
"Easy?" Liam crossed the ball into the box where Byron was.
"Now to hit it directly into the bottom corner." Byron looked at the bottom corner then looked at the ball, adjusting his positioning correctly. "Okay."
Byron swung his leg but immediately his foot made contact with the ball it was almost as if the ball wanted him to do a specific shot and the one he wanted to do wasn't it. The ball tapped his leg and flew past the post. "A normal cross please?"
"I know no such thing, ready yourself." Liam crossed another ball into the box.
Liam was an eccentric player, he didn't see the game the same as everyone else. He wanted to be a defender as well as the captain of the team but he purposely changed his position and Paul didn't think of him as a captain. He looked up to players like Xavi and Fabregas while growing up but he wanted something that suited his style.
Byron hit the ball again this time from a different angle and it still missed the net. Byron knew what Liam was doing, it would be easy to continue taking the crosses until he figured out what kind of strike Liam wanted but that wasn't the point. "He wants me to make the ball mine."
Liam crossed another ball into the box and everything about his form just screamed De Bruyne but there was something only he had and that was his lobs and crosses. His balls controlled whoever he passed it to into doing a specific move but it was a suggestion. Do this if you can and maybe we'll score, that was the suggestion he put into the brains of the receiver and now he was trying to see if Byron could score with his own strike instead of the one he proposed.
Byron didn't make an attempt on the ball this time, he just watched it as it passed him by. He watched the spin, the curl, the pace at which it arrived.
Liam watched his pass touch the floor without Byron even trying and even though he wanted to say 'You quitting?' he knew that wasn't the case in the slightest. "Let's see if your vision is just as good as they say." Liam crossed one more time into the box and at first Byron didn't move.
"The curl on that is crazy, a tap in is what you're suggesting but that's not what I want." Byron ran toward the ball and twisted his body sideways using his left leg to slam it into the bottom corner. "Yeah."
"Yeah!!!??" Liam jumped on Byron and they both fell. "You're the third person ever to work past my suggestion."
"Really?" Byron was too tired to really feel hyped by the accomplishment. "Who are the other two?"
"Xiao and Arceus."
"Who's Arceus?"
"He's a midfielder just like you, albeit a bit worse." Liam laughed.
"Worse? someone worse than me could bypass your suggestion?" Byron asked.
"He's just different you know, he has so many obstacles in his way but when on the field he exhibits brilliance that makes him shine the brightest," Liam said, talking in a respective tone about his former teammate.
"Wow."
"Anyways." Liam got up and dusted his pants. "We head over to Wyoming tomorrow so we better get some rest before then, don't want you to be all tuckered out STARTER." Liam left the pitch.
"What a weirdo," Byron said as he got up.
"Like you're one to talk," Max muttered.
"Max, what are you doing here?"
"Apparently the author forgot to give me some lines since six chapters ago," Max said looking at an imaginary camera.
"Uh-huh." Byron walked to the dorms and Max followed.
"Training hard I see." Max said making a gesture with his hands.
"I'm a midfielder now so I have to."
"Wow, such virtue."
"Oh shut up."
The two roommates talked until nighttime and then when they woke up in the morning they took their bags onto the bus and waited for the other players and the coaches. It was about 7 am and the entire bus was filled with soccer players, coaches and one imposter. Annabel.
"I thought you didn't care about the Spring tournament," Paul said while looking at Annabel.
"People change their minds." Annabel responded while looking out the window.
"I think she should stay." Xavier chimed in.
"No one asked you, Leon!" Jeremiah hit Xavier's head.
"Anyways." Paul coughed and Cory handed him a notepad. "The journey here has not been an easy one but all of us made it, we've gotten better and now we're going to the biggest stage we can be on at this time. You owe it to yourself to show the world what you can do, even if you don't want to do it for anyone else. Do it for yourself.
"YES SIR." All the players said in unison while Cory laughed.
"What's so funny." Paul looked at Cory.
"You- you-" Cory said while laughing subtly. "You can accurately predict the scores of a ninety-minute game but have to write a script for a speech."
Paul threw the book out the window and reset his face. "That's not true."
"Hahahhahaahha." The entire bus filled up with laughter and their journey began.
The Spring tournament accepted teams from all over the world as long as they could meet the necessary squad limit and miscellaneous requirements, this time the tournament would feature 24 teams in a one-time elimination format meaning that there were no preliminaries or anything of that nature. Once you lose, you're out.
The entire team knew this hence why they worked their butts off trying to evolve and become players good enough for the team that put them in its first eleven. "We go there and we win. This year's Spring tournament belongs to us!"
"YEAAAAAAHHHH!!" The entire team shouted in unison as the bus drove them to Wyoming for what might be the start of their football careers.
The entire team was in awe as they saw the sights of Wyoming, the attractions were old but gold. From the Buffalo bill center to Yellowstone national park. "Amazing."
Even though they wanted to spend time admiring the sights and taking all of its greatness in, they still had a tournament to show up for and although the tournament started 2 days after they still needed to show up and book rooms for the players.
"That Geyser was amazing," Afeez shouted looking back as they drove away from the beautiful park.
"Listen up everybody, even though this might still be explained to you while in Statham I think it's okay for me to gloss over this with you guys. The tournament has 24 teams and will be going on a one-out format."
"One loss and that's it." Arthur gulped.
"The brackets are split in half and are 12 on each side meaning that the finals will be against the other bracket." Paul looked at his notes.
"That means eight teams have already entered into the second stage, how does that work?" Xiao pointed out that eight teams won't have to play the first match.
"It's usually decided by standings but since this is the first tournament it's based on random selection, those who got lucky will skip the first game."
"And we obviously don't get lucky." Shin chimed in.
"It doesn't matter, I know the capabilities of everyone here and I more or less know the same for everyone in Luthervale. They are a team that relies on each player being a jack of all trades."
"Jack of all trades," Xavier said to himself.
"Each player lacks individuality and even though that is good sometimes, when up against teams like ours. Individuality has the upper hand. What could actually be challenging is our second and third matches. We might face up against Statham high and Union Prefecture both of which had very high standings in the last tournament."
"Christopher Alan," Yuri said, words that felt like the first time anyone had ever heard his voice. "He's a dangerous man."
"Yuri's right, Christopher of Statham high excels in ball retention and aerial combat. 9 out of 10 times his tackles will ground you but will never give him a card, his defense coupled with their already splendid offense might just be a tough nut to crack. Our key men for this would be Shin and Afeez. Use link passes to bypass him instead of a head-on challenge."
"Yes sir." Both Shin and Afeez responded.
"What about Union?" Annabel asked, Union was another team she had on her radars alongside Tenzin and Helios.
"That's one of the weirder ones, they're a solid team all around but they put a defender as their only striker in a 5-4-1 formation."
"Easy win?" Kyle asked.
"I doubt," Cory answered. "But be on your guard against them, don't want another Tenzin."
"So I'll be announcing the 24 teams now, in Statham we'll learn about the matchups." Paul flipped a page.
Marion High, Coach: Paul Siegfried
Luthervale, Coach: Joe Tristan
Wrenchester, Coach: Gareth Gilbert
Statham, Coach: Adam Ellis
All peak, Coach: Song Ha-Jun
Langley, Coach: Walter Grey
Union, Coach: Jeffery Zimmermann
Finreef, Coach: Ian Hommes
Coral Dune, Coach: Elton Paves
Jameson, Coach: Jameson Randsworth
Goldbridge, Coach: Finn Wallsrow
Quinnvay, Coach: Daniel Oswald
Bastet: Bryan Samstone
Daniel Freds: David Fred-dim
Marigold, Coach: Holland Tennessee
TynRose, Coach: Tiffany Parish
Flintslot, Coach: Tyler Blinks
Minakata, Coach: Aoi Hinata
Patricc-Uma, Coach: Velma Galloway
Santanna, Coach: Grant Fischer
Honeycomb, Coach: Jeremy Silvers
E-Cille, Coach: Cyril Youngstown
Che Fang, Coach: Yuze Liqin
Tracksprint, Coach: Jake Hoover
"Did you really have to call the name of the coaches?" Annabel asked.
"I guess I could have left that out."
"Song Ha-Jun? your dad?!" Mark asked Shin.
"Yeah," Shin answered and didn't speak about it any further.
"We're five minutes away." The bus driver said and Paul sat down.
"What do you think the place would look like." Arthur asked Benjamin but he didn't answer him.
"Any fancier than Marion and I might just faint," Xavier answered Arthur.
"SHHHHH." Cory put one finger over his lip and everyone quieted down.
Statham was definitely a sight, almost as if they just tried to one-up Marion in every aspect they could've. They set sprinklers on their pitch, had floodlights over their pitch and had an actual stand for the audience.
"Is it even a high school anymore?" Liam said looking at the pitch.
"No way, they're officially a better team than we are." Xavier said looking at the pitch as well. "They have cheerleaders for Christ's sake."
"That's all it takes for you." Liam said now looking at Xavier who gawked at the cheerleaders.
The bus parked and all the players exited, they didn't notice it but over 20 other buses were parked behind the school with over a hundred players loitering around in a space near the main building.
"Are we the last ones here?" Byron asked.
"No way," Max said counting the busses. "I think we are."
"That's what looking at geysers gets you." Cory followed Paul to what seemed like a coach meet-up.
"Can't wait to set my feet on that." Byron said excitedly.
"So you're the losers from California, Marion." A voice said.
"And you are?" Arthur walked up to him.
"Christopher Alan," Yuri said and also walked up to the Statham defender.
"And they have a third-rate goalkeeper as well." Christopher laughed garishly. "A truly B-rated team."
"I wonder what you'd say when we win." Xiao joined them.
"Don't push your luck kid, this isn't and will never be a fairy tale."
Tap Tap Tap.
"You'll be surprised," Xiao said looking directly at Christopher. "There's nothing more fun than hitting a nutmeg through the legs of a defender who thinks he's all that."
"I'll make you regret your words."
Tap Tap Tap.
"Are you sure about that?" Xiao smiled.
"Coming through pleasseeeeee." A boy holding what seemed like 20 drinks crashed into Xiao and Christopher spilling soda everywhere.
"Oh my God I'm so sorry, I'm so dead, please don't kill me." The boy said while packing up the non-spilled soda and loading them back unto the tray he held.
"What are you doing?" Byron asked.
"Oh. I'm delivering drinks for my friends." The boy said, his voice sounding like that of an actual 10-year-old.
"Seems like your friends don't think of you as a 'friend' if you catch my drift." Xavier picked up a drink and loaded it unto his tray.
"Noooo that's nonsense. See you guys later!" The boy ran away and Byron read the name off his back.
"Zeke. #9, wow he really is a player and a striker at that." Byron said reading the name off of the boy's back.
"C'mon guys let's go, they said we can't just stand there. We gotta go over to the other teams." Cory came over and ordered the team.
"That should be fun," Xavier said sarcastically.
All the teams stood together in a space given to them by Statham and they waited for the coaches. Paul and all the other coaches came up holding sheet papers in their hands and the coach of Statham spoke.
"Due to the number of participants in the tournament, there are going to be some teams that progress to the next round automatically. Those teams are as follows, Statham, Che fang prefecture, Minakata, Quinnvay, Langley high, Santanna high, Patricc-Uma prefecture, and Jameson high." Adam said as he flipped a page on his notepad.
"Bracket A consists of Statham, Marion, Luthervale, Finreef, Union, Che Fang, Minakata, TynRose, Marigold, Bastet, All peak, Quinnvay."
Shin clenched his teeth when he heard All peak was in the same bracket as Marion, he didn't have the cleanest breakaway with his dad and he wasn't ready to confront him.
"Bracket B consists of Langley, Wrenchester, Goldbridge, Coral Dune, Daniel Freds, Santanna, Patricc Uma, Honeycomb, E-Cille, Tracksprint, Flintslot, Jameson." Adam closed his notepad. "Your coaches will tell you your match-ups, that will be all for today."
They found a hotel close to the school and booked 7 rooms, 5 for the team with 4 players sharing each room, 1 for the coaches and 1 for Annabel. There are two more days before their match with Luthervale meaning they had time to train and rest. "Why does Annabel have to sleep in a room by herself."
"Shut up Xavier," Jeremiah said as he turned the lights off.
Sorry for the hold up on the new chapter
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