God Of football

Chapter 6: Making An Impact[Edited]

Coach Oryazabal called the starting eleven to the pitch and also the first eleven of the reserve team with Izan missing in both lineups.

Before he could continue, Coach Garcia pulled him to the side and asked, ” Do you know Izan”. ”Huh, what are you talking about” Oryazabal responded.

Before remembering about the conversation he had with the kid who wanted to change positions. ”Oh yeah what about him ”he said.

”Has he always been this good” Coach Garcia asked. ”Why what happened ” Coach Oryazabal asked. ”Well, for the training we did today, well, he topped all categories, whether it was passing, shooting, ball control, or even crossing.

”Really?” coach Oryazabal asked with a bit of doubt. He had seen Izan come to the team and hadnʼt noticed anything particularly special about him but all of a sudden he is a kid who topped the midfield rankings for today.

Coach Oryazabal turned to look at Izan, who was juggling the ball, unaware of the conversation going on about him.

”Well Iʼll put him in this scribble and see if it was just a fluke or weʼve got a real gem on our hands”

REGULARʼS STARTING LINEUP

Goalkeeper:Sergio Bala

Left-back: Iago Pena, Rightback: Gon Simon

Centerbacks:Marquis Pena, Juan Cabello.

Midfielders:Huévés Ramos, Marcos Blaca,

Sosá herrera, jose martinez

Forwards: Louis sordáno, Joseph Adeyemi

RESERVEʼS STARTING LINEUPS

Goalkeeper:Max Luis

Left-back:Felipe Aspas, Rightback:Diego suave

Centrebacks:Kilo Godin, Dani mendes

Midfielders: Savinho, Nico Chuz, Jordi Hermoso, George white row

Forwards:Inaki balde, Bruce tomăso

With this, the players settled into their positions, and the other players who were not selected went and sat on the bench.

All this while, coach Oryazabal couldnʼt help but steal glances at Izan.” Well, weʼll know, right?” he thought to himself.

******* fweeeee

The referee who was one of the coaches started the match as the main team kicked off.

They played around for a bit seemingly toying with the reserve team. Passing around them while deliberately using flashy moves to annoy them.

This continued for a while before they decided to get serious. Sosá took the ball from a defender and started pushing forward.

He looked for any options and saw that the reteamʼs teamʼs backline had fallen apart.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, he signaled Joseph adeyemi, the striker of the main team who saw what sosá intended to do.

Adeyemi made a forward run which was spotted by sosá who made a raking pass through to him.

Adeyemi took a good touch before speeding towards the keeper, who came out to meet the forward after seeing his defence fall apart.

Adeyemi with composure faked a shot which made the keeper commit before he went around the keeper and tapped the ball into goal.

********

Fweee

1-0 to the main team.

The reserve team already knew they were in for a beating. After restarting, the reserve team was pressured by the main team, who quickly retrieved the ball before passing it around.

Jose, who received the ball, looked up and saw Sosá and passed the ball to him. Sosá carefully trapped the ball between his legs.

With a bit of a nudge on the ball with the outside of his boot, Sosá followed through with a shot from a distance, which took a bit of deflection on its way, causing the keeper to be misled.

*******

2-0 to the main team.

Coach Oryazabal, who was still thinking about Coach Garciaʼs words, decided to try to put Izan on the pitch.

”Izan miura, get ready to go in for Nico chuz” he said. Izan quickly came up and stood on the touchline.

Some of the defenders who knew Izan were a bit perturbed as to why the coach was putting Izan on the field as they fully understood his capabilities.

But nobody decided to talk as they didnʼt want to question the coach and get on his bad side.

The ball went out of play and the substitution was made. Izan came and quickly told the reserve team the coachʼs instructions.

”Coach said we should switch to a 4-3-1-2 with me playing in the attacking midfield role”, Izan said as the team huddled together after the ball had gone out of play.

The main team had a corner to which Sosá stood behind. He had seen Izan get in on the reserve team and was still annoyed by the training drills they had done some moments ago.

He took a few steps back and followed with a run-up before drawing his foot back to make a good delivery into the box.

Fortunately for Izan, who stood at the edge of his penalty box, the ball was headed out by one of the reserve teamʼs defenders, Dani Mendes.

Izan quickly took a beautiful touch before turning and initiating a counterattack after realising there were only two defenders on the opponentʼs side.

Izan took off like a gust of wind easily outpacing the opposing players who came to contend for the ball.

A few seconds later, he reached the first defender who tried to commit a foul, but Izan quickly saw what was going on and pushed the ball behind the defender before using his pace to go around him and take the ball.

Unfortunately for him, the second defender rushed up just as he had passed the first defender.

Izan, with thoughts circulating in his mind at a ridiculous speed, tried to find what he could do to escape from this situation.

Just then, a thought passed: the la croqueta. He instantaneously did the move, which threw the defender off balance, causing him to fall.

Now one on one with the keeper who was rushing out of the goal Izan decided to go for the more sure option and chipped the ball over the keeper.

The ball went in a high arc before rustling the net of the goal.

*******

FWEEEE

The training ground went silent before the reserve team broke the silence by rushing towards Izan who was already in a knee slide by the corner flag.

”What the heck just happened” Sosá thought in his mind as all he saw was Izan dribbling like he was

possessed before chipping the ball over the keeper.

Coach Oryazabal, who was still staring, quickly recovered before looking at Coach Garcia, who also had a ʼwhat the heck was thatʼ look.

Coach Garcia smiled thinking of the teamʼs potential this season. If Izan was truly capable of performing at this level consistently, forget the youth league or the under-19s, the senior team coach might even call him up.

In the stands, the assistant coach of the senior team asked the man standing beside him the name of the kid who had just scored.

The man took a board with a white sheet before speaking”His nameʼs Izan Miura Hernandéz. Heʼs 14, turning 15 in a few months. Profile says heʼs a left-back, but judging from his position, it would be safe to say heʼs playing attacking midfielder. Might be a position change or an experiment by the under-17 coach”.

”Oh, ok, keep tabs on him and call him up to the first team training if he keeps performing like this in their matches”. Said the assistant coach Patricio Moreno.

”Oh ok,” said the man. Izan, who finally stood up from the pile of bodies on him, was praised by his mates.

” Yo bro, what was that?”. ”That was class ”. These were some of the comments from his teammates.

Coach Oryazabal called Coach Garcia and asked, ”What should we do now?”. ”Letʼs think about it after the match ”, Coach Garcia replied.

The referee restarted the match. From kickoff, the regulars attacked relentlessly, although most of the attacks were snuffed out by Izanʼs impeccable leadership and some tackles here and there.

Although his defensive stats were not the best, they were enough for this level. With his instructions, he had managed to stabilise the reserve teamʼs midfield and defense.

The reserve team waited for an opportunity and got one a few minutes later as a mistimed pass by one of the midfielders of the main team saw Izan take control of the ball.

He quickly ordered his strikers to make forward runs while worming his way through the opponentʼs midfield. Sosá tried to make a tackle but Izan sensed it and slowed down for Sosáʼs tackle to miss him.

He quickly saw the space at the back of the defence and lofted the ball towards that area.

The reserve teamʼs striker didnʼt disappoint and got on to the end of the ball before placing the ball into the goal.

********

Fweeeeee

2-2 was displayed on the scoreboard.

The main team were a bit shocked that the match could change because of a single player.

” The kidʼs really good” the assistant coach who was watching quietly in the stands murmured to himself.

After the match restarted, the players of the main team started to double or sometimes even triple team Izan putting a bit of their players on him.

Izan went silent for the rest of the scribble until late when the training match was about to end.

Upon noticing that a gap had appeared in the opponentʼs defence, mainly because of the number of players they had put on him, he decided to use himself to bait them.

Izan came to his own half to receive a pass bringing along about 3-4 opponet players with him.

Izan, noticing this momentary lapse in the defence, signalled for the striker to make a run.

Inaki Balde, the striker didnʼt disappoint and made the run before Izan made a defense-splitting pass to him

The main teamʼs defence tried to catch up to the striker but couldnʼt. One of the defenders threw a slide trying to retrieve the ball but instead fouled Inaki balde on the left side of 18 yard box.

The referee blew the whistle before sending the defender off the pitch. Although it was just training, incurring cards meant running laps around the field and nobody wanted to experience this after a tiring day at training.

Izan took the ball and placed it on the spot where Inaki was fouled. He had already discussed with the team that he would take the free kick.

He took three steps back before breathing in. He made a run up to take the free kick. Izan raised his right leg before whipping the ball over the wall.

The ball seemed to go over the goal but suddenly dropped as there was so much dip and curl on the ball.

The ball smacked the inner side of the goal before rustling the net. The main teamʼs keeper was rooted to the spot.

”Gooal” was the sound that erupted from the mouths of his teammates, who couldnʼt help it.

Izan ran to the corner flag before taking a bow. ”Garcia, weʼve found a diamond ”, Coach Oryazabal said to Coach Garcia, who was still in shock from the freekick.

”Tell Oryazabal to promote the kid to the under-19s side after he turns 15 in a month,”, the assistant coach Patricio Moreno said before walking off, seemingly impressed by Izanʼs performance.

Izan, who was celebrating, didnʼt know his fate would change from that day onwards.