Moon Strike 1.0

Nigel won't waste time. He's been tricked, backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled by the small debutant.

He almost lost his belief in statistics thanks to a single goal.

So it's time for Sheffield to pay him back big time.

Nigel and his fellow central midfielder attacked straight away. They passed the ball quickly from left to right while moving up the field in blistering fashion.

Blaise was in the thick of things again, as he tried man marking Chapman to no avail. He realized that Chapman has entered his own state of absolute focus, just like how it was on football anime… well he found it fitting, since that guy is actually a total weeb too…

'It's about time he started shouting the names of his moves like anime too like he did in my timeline, right?'

Nigel finally escaped Blaise's harassment, and entered the domain of the two Sheffield defenders.

One of them blocked his way. A man that is at least six feet tall already.

With his back against the defender, and while trying to retain the ball on his feet, he nodded to his trailing midfield partner as if signaling.

In the next instant, the ball was released without much power, most likely just enough to slide into the path of the trailing midfielder.

All of a sudden, after turning and moving past the defender, Nigel shouted. "Give and go!"

Blaise, who's already tussling with the midfielder with the ball, panicked when he heard the random shout. He actually fucking knows what move this was!

He instantly reacted by sliding in to dispossess him of the ball. Too bad, he's a second late.

Blaise caught the midfielder's foot and tripped him up. The Nottingham players raised their hands to protest for a foul but the referee waved his hands and played advantage.

The confusion made by the tackle lost the Sheffield defenders. Chapman, who was barely onside when the pass was made, already only has the keeper within striking distance.

At the last moment, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Moon Strike 1.0!"

The ball was sent high to the left, seemingly about to go out of bounds, but instead it curved like a crescent and started curling downward…

The keeper landed with his sides to the pitch as he tried to reach the ball that he thought was going out of bounds anyway.

Well, it didn't.

With a loud thud, it hit the underside of the crossbar and went into the bottom of the net to tie the game up!

"Yeah! Moon Strike!" Nigel expertly drew an arc in the air, like a nasty curveball from a baseball pitcher. His teammates one by one came and congratulated him for that absolute banger. A few also didn't forget to criticize his childish yelling of moves in good fun.

"Frickin' Moon Strike, who the fuck names moves like that?" Terry Quinn acted like he's choking and held his neck. "What's worse is we conceded from that damn Moon Strike or whatever the fuck it's called!"

"Well, can't be helped. That shot was actually pretty good, if I'm being honest." Blaise sighed. "I should've just been booked by the referee so the play would stop."

"Yeah, but he had a goalscoring opportunity. Maybe that's the reason the ref didn't stop it."

Sometimes, in dangerous areas where a goal could be scored, if a foul was made against the team with the possession but there is a real goal scoring opportunity, the referee could opt to give the team with the ball what is called an 'advantage.' This gives them the clearance to continue the play and maybe score, instead of earning a free kick after the stoppage of play.

Blaise himself knew that if the referee blew his whistle, he would be flashed a yellow card for tripping up the opposing midfielder. But seeing that the ball had already been chipped forward to a player with a real goal scoring chance, there's no way that the referee would allow what seemed like an obvious 'professional foul' be called.

The game continued at a much slower pace than what Blaise expected after the restart. He expected more proactivity from the Nottingham side after they got the equalizing goal.

Instead, they dropped a little deeper on their half of the pitch, with only the forwards harassing the Sheffield ball carriers and passers.

Sheffield also slowed down in return. Sure, they still ventured dangerously close to the penalty area several times in close succession, but their attacks lacked the bite.

Blaise sent a ball over the bar, Callum had a tame shot saved easily by the keeper, a glancing header from Cameron only saw the side netting, and the last member of the Sheffield front four Terry also had a volley tipped over the bar.

Several more opportunities came and went for Sheffield without much results until the first half drew to a close.

***

"Here I go, Moon Strike 29!" Terry Quinn simulated Nigel Chapman's goal scoring move while clearly being annoyed. "Hey, keeper! How'd you concede from that!"

"Fuck you, Terry." The keeper made a short yet poisonous retort that elicited laughs all over the locker room. "It's already going outside, I didn't even know it could curve like that."

"Remember the shame you suffered this day, mate. You conceded from Moon Strike!"

"Why do I get the feeling that you're jealous that he gave names to his moves and scored with one?" It was a calamity for Quinn. Cameron noticed that Terry had been repeating and repeating Moon Strike for a countless number of times already since it was shouted by their opponent a single time.

Yes, a single time. That means unknowingly, Terry had said that even more than the move's owner did.

An air of awkwardness surrounded the sweaty locker room. Every Sheffield Blades' member watched on in bated breath for the conclusion of this random banter.

Blaise was unable to hold on any longer. He burst out laughing like a child, quickly followed by most of his teammates.

Terry's face was a deep shade of red, especially his ears, betraying his intentions. It looked like Cameron's observation hit the back of the net.

"Go name your moves too. That should solve the issue." Cameron threw another frag grenade at him point blank, and with his face blank. "Crescent Cutter or something like that."

"Fuck you!" He really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, although he's closing in on the latter. "I don't want to name my moves!"

The Sheffield Blades' locker room was filled with noisy laughter and a cheery atmosphere, as the game ended with a resounding 4-1 victory for the home side...