23 The quarter-final (1/2)

"It's finally time huh." Ricardo hit my shoulder as we watched the opposite team warming up and stretching. We could both feel the tense atmosphere around the stadium this time.

"To think that we'd meet them so soon... It's going to be annoying." Today was finally the day of the quarter-finals and our opponents were the ones responsible for making our U15 team get out of the tournament last year. Evans already warned us about them more than once and told us that it was very possible for us to meet around the semi-finals.

The Sevilla U15 team, they're known for having one of the most annoying Coaches and tactics, not only are they well coordinated but they're ready to do anything in order to win. They have a pretty bad reputation but nobody can deny how strong this team is.

Last year they reached the Final by relying on a hit-and-run tactic, they did everything they could to score the first goal, then switched to a defensive tactic for the whole game.

They won all their games that way, I thought that luckily their best players already moved up to the U17 team, but after using my [Eyes of the Lord] on them I realized how wrong I was, they were a team we needed to be extremely careful of.

I made sure to check all the players that were warming up and from what I can see their overall stat is around 56, all their players were extremely good.

Two of their players in particular caught my eye, they both had stats that could compare with Ricardo, and one of them was even very close to being equal with him, it looks like he's their captain, and the craziest thing was that he also had a B rank weapon which was similar to Ricardo's.

It was actually my first time meeting someone that could rival Ricardo, in this last year even if I met many talented people I always thought that Ricardo was an extremely rare type of genius but now I'm starting to have some second thoughts.

After facing so many standards players I almost forgot what generation I was part of. This era is known to be football's most critical moment. The moment when many new young stars appear. Meeting so many talented people would've usually been impossible but this era is full of such geniuses.

I couldn't help but smile while thinking about it, I was glad to see that such people do exist, after all, becoming the best striker wouldn't be fun if there wasn't some competition.

Our opponents this time were certainly very strong but our team also wasn't any weaker. Riccardo's overall stats are at 65 which is crazy enough but now I'm starting to meet many other players who are pretty close to that level even if none of them surpassed Ricardo.

Even the other team which had two players with overalls above 60, the best of them was only at 64 so I knew that it wasn't something that we couldn't handle.

Pedro's overall was at 59, he's close to being at the level of a star player. While Arnold was at 57. With both of them, I knew that our defense wouldn't be easily penetrated. Their usual tactic wouldn't work as easily as it did in the past.

In our past 2 games, we always won by at least 4 points difference. But the thing that most of our supporters forgot while watching those games is that our team was initially known for its defensive strength. The only reason why we scored so much was that I was playing like a complete madman to score the goals I needed.

In those games, I didn't give out any assists and ended up finally finishing the special quest I received.

The rewards were more than satisfying, I gained 10 random stats but the most interesting was by far my new D-rank special weapon.

[One-Two mastery:

Rank: D

When performing a one-two pass, the short pass stat gains a +5. The speed of the passes and the reflexes of the player are also slightly improved.]

With this, I gained yet another useful offensive weapon, and to make the best use out of this new weapon, I mainly used this last week to train my one-two with Kevin and Ricardo as much as I could.

Unfortunately, Kevin had a hard time following my pace since his passing and trapping weren't that great. I don't believe that I can use that alongside him in an actual match unless I slow down my pace on purpose.

Another thing I gained from those last 3 weeks was a noticeable increase in my stats, and thanks to the 10 random stats I became even more dangerous as a player, I was now way more confident, and I believe that now the gap between me and Ricardo is slowly starting to lessen and might even vanish anytime soon.

[Kicking power: 51->52

Volley: 59->60

Centering: 36->37

Weak foot: 44 -> 45

Stamina: 92->93

Kinetic vision: 64->65

Reaction speed: 59->60

Power: 49->50

Attack awareness: 58->59

Tactical coordination: 46->47]

Thanks to those 10 random stats my stamina which was stagnating for a while finally improved again. Another major increase was that both my reaction speed and volley reached 60 which was a huge milestone.

All my stats improved so much. In some aspects, I was almost at Ricardo's level. Many of my stats were now above 60 and most of my stats that used to drag me down are now at above 50.

'System, show me my status.'

[Player status:

Name: Jude Sanchez

Age: 14

Title: "stamina freak"

Version: Normal

Total: D (56)

Offence: C (60)

Shooting: D (56)

Dribble: D (57)

Speed: D (55)

Defence: E (46)

Pass: E (46)

Stat points: 0

Random stat points: 0

Special Weapons: Greed (Z), Eyes of the Lord (Z), Free kick specialist (D), One-Two mastery (D)]

If it was 1 month ago I would probably be close to useless in such a high-level game, but now everyone on our team was relying on me to score.

My offence stats were finally at the level of a star player, even if on paper our team was at a disadvantage with both me and Ricardo working together I believe that we can handle this.

"This game is going to be extremely tough, unlike any other game we played. This time our opponents are both extremely good individually but also work well as a team." The coach announced in a serious manner.

"In this game, we will be relying a lot on our defense, we've analyzed their previous games, and from what we've seen they didn't change their tactic since last year. As long as we can stop them from scoring the first goal, we'll be able to win. In this game I'll mainly be counting on Pedro and Arnold, their captain is the person you should be wary of, if he gets too close to the goal you're allowed to foul him."

After hearing that, I could see a creepy smile forming on Arnold's lips, that type of aggressive play was his specialty after all. In our past games he was benched most of the time so now it was finally his time to shine.

"I also have some more special instructions for this game! First of all, Ricardo will be playing as a defensive midfielder for the first half of the game, we need to make sure to break their spirit in the first half, in the second half he'll be able to go back to his position and give them the finishing blow."

"As for Jude, I want you to go back in defense way more than usual, you can even go back at the same level as Ricardo. With your crazy stamina I don't think that this would be a problem." The coach added.

I simply nodded and then smiled towards Ricardo, it was my first time being asked to play more defensively but I should take that as a new experience instead.

We then all went to our positions after the coin toss was made, the opposite team will be having the kick-off.