The tournament begins

"Not too stressed?" Esmeralda asked. She was always the first one to check on every player before games.

"Why would I be stressed?" I replied with a smile. After taking a look at all the opposite team's players I saw that only 2 of them had a special weapon and it was nothing but a D-rank special weapon.

Their overall level was quite disappointing to be honest. They were at best at the level of our past B team. Maybe my standards have just risen too high.

Most of those players had stats that were in the forties, it wasn't too bad and would actually be considered very good for a B team but if I compare it to our current team it's nothing more than a joke.

Their player had an average rate of 41 while ours had an average of 52. The difference in stats wasn't something that could easily be ignored, especially when we add on the fact that our coach made sure that our team had a great chemistry and team play.

"Everyone gather in front of me!" Evans yelled out to us. We all did as we were told and lined up in front of him, it was already time for him to share his instructions for this match with us.

"Today will be our first match in this tournament so I'll be honest with everyone. Our opponents aren't that strong, I'm convinced that we can easily win this game. But winning isn't enough for us." Evans said with a serious look on his face.

He then called out for Ricardo to finish his speech. As the captain of the team, Ricardo was also often put forward and asked to help with speeches.

"I know our team's level. We have always been one of the favorites for this tournament so now that we fixed our missing piece and have a better offense we need to make it known to the world." Ricardo announced with a confident smile.

"Today's tactic is simple. Destroy our opponents and show them how strong our offensive power became!" Evans added with a wide smile on his face.

"Heh, just pass it to me and I'll take care of the rest." I said with a smile. I couldn't deny that his dumb speech pumped me up. there's nothing better for a striker than being told that the team will go on a full offense tactic.

After we all laughed together a little more, we all went to our designated position, our team's current lineup was a classic 4-3-3 with Ricardo playing as an attacking midfielder.

That's the tactic our coach made us focus on for the last week, it seems like he was planning on playing the whole tournament that way.

After reaching my position, I started stretching a little while looking at our coach, I couldn't deny that he was ruthless but at the same time, I was very grateful to him.

Ever since I joined the main team he trained me as well as he could and even helped me evolve as a striker, this game was the best opportunity for me to show everyone that I do deserve my position and the coach's favor.

Our only instruction was to score as many goals as possible, that was perfect for me. As soon as I heard the referee blow the whistle I passed the ball back to Ricardo and started running.

With my stamina stat being at 92 I didn't have any worry whatsoever about running out of stamina. In this game, I was planning to go all out from the start.

Ricardo easily went past their striker who tried an early pressing then passed the ball straight towards me. He was hoping to slow down the pace by giving me the ball earlier than he was supposed to.

Even if he was our team's star player, his main job in our team was to control the pace of our offense and defense, that was his specialty and he knew exactly how to control us.

Unfortunately for him, the coach's instructions didn't say anything about taking it slow or showing off our team play, just as the ball reached my feet I sprinted towards their goal and ended up dribbling past 2 of their midfielders.

"I'm open!!" Kevin, our team's little speedster managed to get a free position and yelled out to me, his yell attracted the nearby defenders who all rushed towards him.

But instead of passing it to him as everyone expected, I simply used him as a bait and kept running towards the goal, thanks to him there was only one defender left in my way.

With both my dribbling and ball control above 50, I was able to easily get past anyone that stood in my way and soon enough ended up being face to face with the keeper.

I could clearly see his unease written all over his face, he didn't have the confidence and calm needed to be a keeper and I knew exactly how to take care of that kind of player.

As soon as he saw me freeing myself from the last defender he immediately rushed towards me in the hope to jump on the ball before I could shoot it.

Unfortunately for him, I already expected that from him, I ran towards him and right before he jumped on the ball to stop me, I tried to get the ball past him with a rainbow flick.

He ran as fast as he could but the goalkeeper ended up jumping on my feet instead, it was already too late, the ball was already above his head.

All he could do was look back and witness how the ball slowly entered the goal under everyone's flabbergasted gaze.

"Woahhhhh!!" I could hear the sound of all the supporters who came to cheer on us for our first match. They all went crazy over our first goal.

At that moment I remembered Lavinho's words about dribbling. "Dribbling is the essence of football, even if you don't know how to shoot as well as others why would it matter if you can dribble everyone including the keeper?"

I couldn't help but smile, I've finally reached a level in which I could slightly understand his words, the feeling you get after dribbling past so many players is something that fills you with adrenaline and makes the whole crowd go crazy.

In that moment filled with euphoria, I realized that I truly started getting addicted to this feeling, I loved football and I loved being a striker.

I couldn't help but imagine what if one day I could reach a level in which I'd be able to replicate this in a real professional game.

That goal was a perfect way to announce the color for the rest of the tournament. In this tournament, we're aiming for the top of the podium.

I could see Coach Evans from the sidelines giving me a thumbs up, that's exactly what he was hoping for so I knew that I wouldn't get scolded for showing off a little.

"You could've passed it to Kevin." Ricardo sighed but in the end still first bumped me and complimented me. That's the privilege of being a striker, you can overwrite all your wrongs as long as you score.

The rest of the match was no surprise, by the end of the first half I had already scored 4 more goals and the total score was now 5-0.

I was even contemplating finishing my quest in this game and scoring 5 more goals in the second half, but unfortunately the coach subbed me out.

He also subbed out Ricardo and a few of our best players to let the least experienced players gain some real experience and show how strong our bench actually was.

"That was a total massacre." Esmeralda couldn't help but comment on the final result of the game. Even with all those changes our team still dominated them throughout the second half, our bench was still stronger than their whole team.

I actually believe that even our B team would be able to hold out against them and wouldn't lose by much. Unfortunately for them, they weren't against our B team but our strongest line-up.

The game ended with a humiliating 8-1 score. Seeing that I couldn't help but start believing that we actually had all our chances in winning this tournament.

Now all I had to do was score 5 more goals before the quarter-finals, from what I heard until the quarter-finals our opponents should be relatively easy so I'm not too worried.

Especially after seeing today's match, I knew that our earlier games would be very easy, the true games would start from the quarter-finals, and that's when we will meet the true contenders for the top.

Until then I'll do my best to become as strong as possible.