Chapter 5- Contribute

Ten Hag walked into the locker room, greeting all the players with handshakes, it's been a wonderful first half, and it's nice to see us being appreciated. 

"Well done Lads, Bruno and Adrian, marvelous positioning and vision, great shots and runs from you today Adri, Rasmus, good vision, selfless passing, a good quality in strikers, good high pressing from our backline, I'm looking at you Malacia, overall guys, we have been dominating and we have to continue the onslaught, so get out there and let's climb the table!" 

We cheered in response, finished our drinks or in some cases fruits, and walked out to the tunnel where we were met with Arsenal stars. I shook hands with Odegaard, Saka, and Jesus, but everyone else looked a bit reserved. 

The ref signaled us to walk out and we did, this time, Arsenal would start with the ball, their tactics seemed to have changed as the ball was passed repeatedly between the players, finally finding the feet of their full-back who threaded the ball to Saka, who ran onto the pass, controlling the ball perfectly. 

I ran back aspiring to help the defense, and I ran onto the flank, disregarding formation rules, they were bound to get messed up anyway, and accelerated up to Saka, we were neck and neck, until he cut the ball back and opened up space in the penalty box, a cross, could be deadly for our team, I noticed Jesus in the box barely marked, I stretched out my feet and blocked Saka's cross and spun around past him and kept running forwards, but I was soon met with a challenge from Odegaard who sent me flying, just a few meters outside the penalty box. 

I stood, nursing my shoulder which felt like it was squashed by a truck, I stood up and was about to make my way to the wall when Bruno called me from the free-kick area. 

"Adri, come here, take this one for us, get the hat trick!" 

"I'll try Bruno!" 

I stepped far away from the ball, taking strong one-meter strides for five steps before I was five meters away from the ball, the optimum run-up for me. Time seemed to stand still in the weight of the moment, the pressure threatening to take me down, Gravity was against me, so I guess I would have to stand up straight and kick harder I thought with a new resolve. 

I ran the weight of a whole city in anticipation on my shoulders, but I couldn't let it crush me, I stepped to the left, brought my leg up as far as I could while leaning back, and let my feet cascade into the ball, my cleats spinning the sphere of destruction into life, a curving arc of beauty, sailing over the heads of all the players and the crossbar, until it dropped, with unbelievable pace, landing on the goal line and then bouncing at violent speed into the top corner, leaving Aaron Ramsdale, the arsenal keeper rummaging about blindly in the air for a ball that was already in the net, it was too fast for them.

There was only one thing on my mind, this goal was so similar to the one of my idol, I must pay tribute to him somehow, I ran to the far post, followed by teammates roaring in ecstasy, I jumped around 1.5 meters in the air and spun landing with my feet wide and my hands out low, "Suiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!"

My teammates chuckled and then toppled into me, all of us tumbling to the ground, on top of each other playing Jenga right there on the field, if it weren't for rules Ten Hag would've joined in, by the look on his face. 

We were too cocky and that's probably how we ended up conceding a goal. Saliba was pressing high when Dalot, who was running back to defend, was too slow and left space for Leandro Trossard to run onto the ball lob and switch play to Bukayo Saka who then effortlessly dribbled past Lisandro Martinez, and threaded the ball to Jesus who punished or keeper Onana who rushed forward, by executing a chip, which sailed into the netting, the Arsenal fans erupted, they may not win, at least they scored once. 

<Man Utd-3:1-Arsenal>

The scoreboard was in our favor, but I couldn't bear the looks on some Arsenal players who thought they could make a comeback, we need one more. 

With 5 minutes left I received a decent ball from Martinez and Immediately ran forwards, bypassing Odegaard and Partey, passing the ball to Bruno, who in turn switched the play to the left wing, where our substitute for Rashford at half-time, Anthony Elanga, was streaking up the pitch, he has proven useful, despite him not being a super-high rated player. Elanga threaded the ball back to Bruno who lobbed it to me, the shot angle however was horrible, so I executed a pass between the lunging keeper's legs to Rasmus Hojlund our striker, who scored easily into the open net. 

We did a group knee slide together and collectively embraced, due to the wonder of a beautiful team goal, and as the final whistle went, we left no regrets on the pitch.

<Man Utd-4:1-Arsenal>

Debut Massacre...

<*Sorry for the blocky paragraphs, I'll try to make them shorter next chapter*>

By the way, the author forgot to say but mc's dad is Portuguese and his mum is Brazilian, what team to pick? His idol is CR7 but he has skills like Ronaldinho...