15 SECOND HALF

Noah continued to watch the game until the end of the first half arrived. After the referee blew the whistle, he saw his team members heading of the peach to catch a little break and drink some water.

Since he hadn't been doing much, Noah wasn't tired or thirsty. The only thing he was eager for was a goal. And he wanted to try some of the things that he had seen the players on the field do, some skills and dribbling that he saw them execute.

Noah began replaying the moments and images that he could remember in his head. Mentioning some important points that he noticed. 'I have to watch my opponent's body language, try and predict their actions. Now that's a hard one – not only that, I also have to read the game.

There's always a tempo, a rhythm, if I can guess or accurately get this, intercepting the ball shouldn't be too difficult.' Noah thought, not saying anything to his teammates that were already thinking of a strategy that they could use to score some goals.

"Hey, greenhorn, aren't you going to say something? You're dragging the whole team down." The striker in the team complained.

Noah only threw a glance at him and turned his attention away, returning to what he was engaged in before he was interrupted.

"Hey," The striker got up and was about to approach Noah aggressively. Obviously, he was still furious at Noah for what he caused, hitting him off the ground.

"Calm down Gabe, before we started this game Coach already told us that he had never played ball before. If you do something stupid then Coach Wilbur wouldn't take it easy with you." The second midfielder in the team stopped his striker from going after Noah.

"Hmph!!" Noah scoffed and smirked at Gabe. 'Thank your lucky stars that he stopped you from coming at me, I would have rearranged that pretty nose of yours.' Noah thought.

The midfielder used Coach Wilbur's name to scare the striker. And truly, from a distance, Coach Wilbur was watching what was going on. If the player had really done something stupid to Noah, Coach Wilbur was ready to punish him, severely…

"Look at em fighting amongst their selves." A player in a pink bib chuckled.

Coach Wilbur looked at Noah's expression, trying to understand Noah's way of thinking. After everything, he hasn't given many reactions and at the moment he looked as if he was deep in his thoughts.

'This kid has thick skin.' Coach Wilbur scoffed. "Boys, I want 3 more goals. If you can't do this then you're running 10 laps around the field after this game. Got that?" Coach Wilbur questioned.

"Yes sir!!" The players in pink bib answered…

Anisa walked to where Noah and the rest of his teammates were, when she arrived, she let out what was in her mind.

While they were playing, she could see that Noah was slowly adjusting to the game. All of the mistakes that he had been making in his positioning and flow of the game, he corrected slowly after watching the other players do so.

"Why don't you guys pass to Noah?" She blurted out.

"There's no point in doing that, he's useless anyway." The striker answered.

"Really? Few minutes before the first half ended, Noah was in perfect position and if you had passed the ball to him, chances are that he would have scored a goal." Anisa argued.

"Chances? This is the first time that he's playing ball, your expectations are too high. We're playing this match just to please Coach Wilbur. The bummer has already lost the bet." Another player on the same team with Noah mentioned.

"I doubt any of you could make a wicked shot like he did when the match started-"

"It was a lucky fluke. He just saw the ball and he did as he thought of football. He hit the ball as hard as he could. Have you forgotten that he said that football was just a game where you hit a ball?" Gabe interrupted.

"Just pass the ball to him, you guys haven't given him the chance to prove himself," Anisa argued. She really felt like Noah was capable of performing better than he had been doing.

"What's it to you? Are you his agent or you're just attracted to his pretty face?" Another player asked as he eyed Anisa.

Anisa facepalmed herself, "Just give him a few passes when he's in a good position. Use the fact that your opponent doesn't see him, to them Noah is invisible and useless. Use this to your advantage and score a few goals."

"She does have a point, if his shot wasn't a fluke and we use it to our advantage, we should be able to equalize before the game ends. They don't even mark the greenhorn." The goalkeeper of Noah's team chipped in.

"You see!! Someone with a brain on the green team. I even heard Coach Wilbur say that the losers of the match will have to run 10 laps around the school." Anisa added.

"What!!??" They all shouted out in fear of the punishment.

"But it's not our fault that we are playing short one." Gabe in Noah's team uttered in frustration and threw a glance at Noah.

Noah was still in his head and had a smile on his lips. The idea of trying what he thought excited him more than he knew. He looked at the ball that was on the field and felt the urge to go closer to it. He wanted to touch the ball and test what he had been imagining.

Gabe saw the smile on his face and the thought of punching Noah reached his mind.

-Pheeewww!!

The referee blew the whistle after a 5 minutes break. He called the players back to the pitch so that they could begin the second half of the match.

Noah and his team entered the pitch, so did the opposing team. Since the green team was the one that had the first pass in the first half, the pink team is the one to have the first pass for the second half by default.

-Pheeeww!!

The whistle was blown and the second half began. Immediately, Noah went after the ball. He didn't rush as he did in the first half, he was intelligently trailing the ball as the pink team players were passing it around themselves.

The players of the pink team could tell that Noah wasn't pursuing the ball stupidly, but they didn't think much of it. They didn't think that a newbie could do much anyway. So all of them continued to play, underestimating Noah.

While trailing the ball, from player to player, Noah was enjoying himself. He liked the fact that the players were acting accordingly to how he thought they would when he marked the way he is. He was like a predator waiting to pounce on his target.

'Left-wing.' Noah thought and coincidentally, the ball was heading to the defender in the left-wing of the field.

To everyone watching, it was a coincidence, however to Noah it wasn't. He predicted this by reading the flow of the game and the body language of the players. A smirk crawled up his lips as he ran towards the ball.

Even when everyone saw that Noah was going to win the ball, they didn't feel like he could do much after winning the ball because the defender by the left-wing of the field was rushing to mark Noah. They conclude that he wouldn't be able to get past the defender.

In seconds, Noah caught up to the ball, and not much after, the defender caught up too. Noah wanted to run with the ball, but as soon as his leg touched the ball, he pushed it too much, more than he had intended to.

Despite his mistake, Noah tried his best to catch the ball before it went out of the field and he succeeded. Before he could catch his breath, the defender arrived behind him.

The defender stretched his leg to hit the ball off Noah's legs but before his leg could touch the ball, it was drawn further away, causing the defender to almost fall.

Following this, Noah saw an opening to break away from the pursuit of the defender. Noah pushed the ball once again, but this time, with lesser force. He didn't want the ball to spin out of his control.

Noah was heading for the goalkeeper, when he was a few feet away from the goalie, he slowed down and paced himself.

'1, 2, 3!!' At the count of 3, Noah released another wicked shot at the post. This time, with better accuracy. The ball crossed the distance quickly and went into the post.

Just like the first time, the goalkeeper couldn't react in time until after the ball went past him.

-Fhoop!!

The ball went into the post and its momentum was stopped by the net of the post.

"Goal!!" Anisa screamed out in joy and clapping for Noah.

She was the only one that did this, the rest were still stunned by the move Noah made. The way he dribbled the defender. All of this happened in seconds, the time he took to get past the defender and the time he took to score…