Cheated by the system ?

A few minutes later Harry arrived at the club, he dismounted his bike and saw that everyone was already on the pitch and they had started warming up.

He changed in a rush and joined them, he recognized every face but he had a hard time remembering some names. The easiest names to remember were Thomas and Lucas, the goalkeeper who will play for the FC Barcelona in the future and the center back who had a decent career in front of him.

When he walked on the pitch he attracted the attention of everyone and they came to greet him, at 15 years old Harry was in his prime and shone like a bright star, he usually wore the captain armband when he was in the starting eleven, sadly his talent peaked too soon and he was stuck in a small team.

The coach saw that everyone was there and blew in his whistle to call them all back.

"As you all know, we will be playing the regional finals next week, I heard that some big teams have sent their scouts so I hope you will all show what you can do ! That being said after today's training session I will announce the starting eleven."

"There will be scouts ?"

"I heard that correctly right ?"

"Bro this is our opportunity, we can't let Harry, Lucas and Thomas outshine us !"

Every young man present felt their blood boiling, with a good performance during this final they could leap through the the Dragon Gate and fly up into the sky !

Everyone was the same of course, Harry included. He was confident about himself but felt like something was wrong, he couldn't tell what it was however and focused on his performance.

Soon they started a training game, 11 versus 11. The coach decided to split the talents in two, Harry would be playing against both Thomas and Lucas.

The kick off was given to Harry's team since they had a disadvantage, as soon as the coach blew his whistle the striker made a pass to the center midfielder and the game started for real.

The midfielder was slow to make a decision and the other team's striker rushed towards him and managed to snatch the ball, thankfully Harry was quick to realize that and he positioned himself behind his teammate to take back the ball right away.

He patter his midfielder's shoulder while running and said:

"Don't be nervous, play like you usually do !"

He was the captain after all and the duty of keeping the troops fresh and motivated was his.

Soon a midfielder from the opposite team was in front of him, Harry wanted to quickly test his newly acquired talent and tried a simple elastico but the ball didn't respond correctly and he lost it to a defender !

'Huh ? Even without Garrincha's talent I'm able to do this simple move so what's going on? I feel like my feet aren't responding like they usually do !'

Harry was stuck on the spot thinking about what just happened when the opponents managed to put the ball in the net.

The coach who was acting as a referee saw this and frowned, he knew Harry wouldn't miss such an easy move against only one player, he blew his whistle to signal a time out and walked to Harry.

"Did you hurt yourself somewhere ?"

"Huh?"

Harry was surprised by the question.

"I'm asking if you are wounded somewhere, I rarely see you miss such a play Harry."

"Uhm sorry coach, no I'm not hurt anywhere I'm just feeling a little weird today."

"Don't push yourself, if you feel bad during training then you should go back and rest, we're going to need you for the final."

"I'm ok coach I can play !"

///

During the next 15 minutes Harry felt like his legs didn't belong to him, moves that were usually so simple for him became incredibly hard !

On the opposite team Lucas and Thomas looked at each other and frowned.

"What's going on with Harry? We're gonna need him for the final don't tell me he succumbed to pressure ?"

"There's no way, he's the calmest of the lot, is he sick ?"

"That's possible, it's so cold these days maybe he's sick…"

'What the fuck is going on?! What did this fucking system do to me ? I can't even do a fucking roulette now?!'

As he started getting heated up Harry suddenly said fuck it and went all out, he stopped thinking and let his body go for it.

He got the ball near the middle line, with a flick of his foot the ball lifted a tiny bit off the ground onto the tip of his feet, he went for an elastico once again and it looked perfect this time, even the coach was surprised by the execution !

One player was passed, this time two defenders were on him so he passed the ball to a teammate who didn't lose any time and made a through pass where there was no opponent, Harry managed to read the direction and got there before Lucas the talented center back, it was a 1v1 now but Harry had to be quick because defense was grouping up towards him.

He let his body move on it's own and with a simple shoulder move feinted Lucas into thinking he was going to the right, he had passed him easily now the only person left was the keeper Thomas however even the most talented keeper can't do anything in a one on one situation and when he came rushing Harry lifted the ball above his head to score a magnificent lob goal.

The scoreboard was still in the other team's favor but that was alright, he understood something important !

'It seems like my brain is still used to the way I used to play, since my play style changed drastically I can't expect my brain to follow the change. This is great, the system didn't cheat me !'

After 30 more minutes the training game was over, it ended with a score of 4-2 for the opponents but Harry didn't care at all, he was trying hard to adapt and it was working better and better, at first he even failed the techniques that he knew but by the end of the game he surprised everyone with incomparably smooth and novel techniques !

The coach called everyone to sit in front of him and made the starting eleven announcement.