Chương 15: Spring has come
"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.
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