The quarter-final (2/2)

As soon as the referee whistled, their striker passed the ball back to their second striker, they didn't waste any time and all rushed towards us in a synchronized way.

It was my first time seeing a team being so aggressive at the beginning of the game, they were probably used to taking their opponents by surprise with such tactics but we already expected that much.

I ignored their first striker and immediately ran towards one of their midfielders, the coach warned us before the game that today me and Ricardo would each have one player we would need to personally guard.

"Hello there." I greeted the player I was supposed to annoy for the entirety of the game. He's one of the two players who have an overall above 60, I made sure to check every single one of his stats, and thanks to that, I knew all of his strengths and weaknesses.

At the same time, Ricardo went to guard their captain as well as their most dangerous weapon, I couldn't help but appreciate the coach's tactics, as long as we guarded both of those then their plays would become way more limited.

But even after seeing that we were guarding them so closely they didn't stop from advancing towards our goal, once they reached halfway through our field their striker made a sharp pass towards their captain.

From what I've seen thanks to my [Eyes of the Lord] his stats are perfect for his position, he was an attacking midfielder, but unlike Ricardo who's a very balanced player, this guy was way more focused on his offence stats.

He easily trapped the ball even though our star player was guarding him, as soon as he got the ball he immediately tried to get rid of Ricardo by dribbling past him, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't escape for Ricardo's close trade.

Our captain was known to be a jack of all trades, his defense was good enough to stop most players in a 1 on 1 and the opposite team's ace was no exception.

"What's wrong Ace? Losing your confidence already?" Ricardo taunted him with a sly smile on his face, but instead of getting angry, he smiled back.

"That's stupid of you to believe that I'm the only Ace on this team, you should've done your research before trying to go against us, mister Star player." As soon those words left his mouth he stopped his run and pushed Ricardo away with his body then passed the ball towards the left without even looking.

The ball made a huge arc in the sky before heading towards a young and short brown-haired boy that was running on the side of the field, he easily got past a midfielder that was blocking his way and ended up seemingly open.

Unfortunately, right as he was about to receive the ball, a leg appeared right in front of the ball and managed to barely trap it. "You really followed me all the way here? you crazy bastard aren't you supposed to be a striker?" he cursed while looking at me.

That was the plan we all agreed on, since my defense still isn't anywhere near high enough to be useful in this game I was tasked to guard their second Ace and make sure he doesn't get to touch the ball.

It was a tactic I came up with in case we met a strong opponent we needed to guard. It's a tactic that makes use of all of my best stats, I'm able to follow him thanks to my high acceleration and then all I need is to focus on intercepting the ball.

Thanks to my reaction speed reaching 60 and my kinetic vision being at 65 I could easily do so, especially since my trapping was also close to reaching 60. With that I can still contribute to the defense as a striker, I was confident that whoever I was guarding wouldn't get to touch any ball.

As soon as I completely trapped the ball, I made a sharp U-turn and passed the ball towards Kevin who already started his sprint, it looked like he have been waiting for this since the beginning of the game.

"It seems like you're the ones who need to do your research if you believe that I'm the only star player on this team." Ricardo mocked then sprinted past their captain and ran to join on the offence while ignoring the coach's words about playing defensively for the first half.

As soon as I saw him run I joined in on the fun, I didn't expect him to follow me when I passed the ball toward Kevin but it's nice to see that he has that much faith in me, after all, the coach did tell me to pass the ball to our defense whenever we got it, but I have a bad habit of ignoring instructions I find useless.

I couldn't hold back the excitement of facing such a strong team, it was the first time in a while in which I could go all out, I ran as fast as I could and linked up with Kevin who passed the ball back to me.

As soon as I got it I kept advancing in a one-two with Ricardo, our passes were so fast and accurate that even I had a hard time believing it, my new special weapon allowed me to go through their players way too easily.

Playing with Ricardo was like playing with a double of myself, he perfectly linked up to me and knew the strength and limits of my abilities, whenever a defender rushed towards me he just sent a strong pass towards both of us and believed in my ability to trap it and get rid of the opponent.

Soon enough all three of us ended up reaching the goalkeeper's box, Ricardo had the ball and was about to pass it back to me, but that's when their captain managed to catch up to us, he pushed his arm on Ricardo's back and lightly pushed him off balance to stop his pass, then tried to intercept the ball.

Luckily, Ricardo gained back his balance and centered the ball on me, I was about to jump and try to trap it with my chest but that's when I heard an unknown voice coming from behind me.

"it's payback time!" Suddenly, I saw a leg in the air trying to reach for the ball and trap it before me.

It was the same player I was guarding earlier, I didn't think he would follow me here, I barely had any time to think before he would reach the ball so instead of trying to trap the ball I jumped in front of his leg to make sure he doesn't get to touch the ball and stop our offence.

1 second later I could feel his shoes hitting against the side of my chest, I couldn't help but fall straight on the ground. "Jude!! Are you alright?" Kevin came rushing to check up on me then I heard the referee stop the game to signal a foul.

The player who ended up hitting my chest on accident got a yellow card and we ended up getting the penalty. "Can you still play?" Evans asked me after making our team's medical team check up on me.

"Yes, let me shoot it." I said with a smile, nobody other than me and their second Ace knew that I stood in his way on purpose and they all took it as an unfortunate accident. In my past life, the only sports I had an interest in and practiced were martial arts so I didn't have any fear about physical contact.

"You're a crazy bastard." Their second Ace looked at me with an annoyed face when I went to take the penalty. I simply smiled at him in return then took a few steps back and got ready to shoot.

I did a small run with many short steps to build up the tension, then shot the ball as hard as could towards the left side of the goal, their goalkeeper jumped towards the same side in which I shot the ball but his reaction speed was way too slow.

"Let's goo!!!" By the time he finished his jump, the ball was already deep against the net. Everyone jumped on me to celebrate this goal.

"Agh!" I couldn't help but grunt in pain when I felt someone hugging me a little too tightly. I suddenly remembered the one and only stat in which I'm lower than most people I meet.

[Condition stability: 54]

That stat determines the chances someone has to get injured or hurt, it also determines my overall health and chances to get sick, most people I met were above 60 in that stat.

I thought that now that it reached above 50 I should be way more safe, but I guess I didn't take it all into consideration since now that the adrenaline is starting to die down I can feel an immense pain in my ribcage.

"Jude! You're getting subbed out!!" I could hear Evans yell out from the bench, I could feel an unusual worry in his voice.