Football in The Park (2)

Ten minutes after Alexis set up the opener, the two teams decided to go for a break.

"Bro". Myles called out to Alexis as the latter was trying to find somewhere to rest for a while. "I didn't know you could play like that". He said. It was easy to see from the look on his face that he was genuinely shocked.

Alexis fought back the urge to say 'neither did I'. He had a calm smile on his face and nodded. "I've been told that a lot".

"I figured. You really don't look the part". He said after which he walked off to talk with some of his closer friends.

Alexis walked over to an abandoned corner and sat down to analyse what he had played so far.

While he wasn't as good as he wouldn't wanted to be, he was having a good game so far. He hadn't taken any shots and refrained from giving too many long balls so there wasn't any flaws with his game. The simple truth of the matter was that he was way more intelligent and held to higher standards than the people he was playing with.

The first chance he created for instance, if that kind of a thing had happened in Real Stars, he would've gotten the grunt of it. It was considered common knowledge that he was suppose to allow the left back make a pseudo run so that he would attract defenders with him and it would've been his fault for not passing well.

Here, Trey blamed himself for not receiving the pass well and even though nobody said anything to him, Alexis noticed the way they looked at Trey right after.

After a few more minutes, everyone headed back outside for the second half of the match.

The first few minutes of the second period was basically a free for all. All of a sudden the two teams were energetic so there was a lot of pressing, hence the ball changed hands very easily.

For this period of time, Alexis removed himself from the general play. If the ball came to him, he didn't take more than two touches on the ball before releasing it. Even though he didn't really want to involve himself with the play at that stage, it was also a force of habit. He was taught right from an early age that when his team was being pressured, the ball would keep moving.

When everything had calmed down, Alexis got the ball again. Hansel gave him the ball over on the right flank. Alexis dribbled into the space in front of him passing to Phillip who was lingering close to him once he was confronted by the opposing right back. Alexis continued his run and Phillip played a through ball to him on the right.

Alexis flicked the ball onto Myles who was also making a run on the right and ran into the box. Myles got the ball and passed it back to Alexis who now had a bit of space inside the box. Without even so much as thinking about it, Alexis shot the ball with his left leg and watched as his low shot bent round the corner of the post, going out of bounds for a goal kick.

"Fuck". He muttered under his breath. That was a good shot. He didn't have time to look up and get an idea of the target was but it was still so close to the bottom corner of the far post.

It was only after he started jugging back that he realized he had used his left leg to shoot. The doctor has said that he should avoid stressing that leg but he didn't feel anything after making that shot. Furthermore, his shot wasn't bad at all.

Alexis was engaged in a heated internal debate with himself. On one hand, he shouldn't be using his left leg because of what he was told by the doctor, and on the other hand, he was so much better with his left leg. He would've continued with his debate if he didn't remember one key detail, the reason why he was even playing this match in the first place, the hidden mission!

The system said that it was going to give him full recovery from his ACL injury. He was already fully recovered so the system must've meant the side effects that came with it. If that was the case then what did he have to worry about?.

All of a sudden, Alexis had an evil smile on his face. What happened in the next thirty minutes the match spanned for made his teammates thankful that Myles brought him to play for them.

So far, he hadn't really made any dribbling runs. He would take five or six steps with the ball before releasing it to an open teammate or combine with a teammate to rid himself of any defender marking him like he just did. After winning his little debate however, he began making solo runs, dribbling past defenders and charging at the goal.

If they thought that Alexis was good before, the other twenty one teenagers playing with him weren't ready for what followed. At the end of the game, he ended up scoring a goal and setting up three more. His team won and he completed the mission given to him by the system.

After the match finished, everyone dispersed. It turned out that Alexis and Trey were living in the same street so they walked home together.

"How were you so good?" Trey asked as they were walking. To Alexis's annoyance, he hadn't stopped talking since they left the park.

"I've been training at an academy since I could walk". Alexis smiled. Even though he didn't like how much Trey was taking, it felt nice to be fawned over like that.

"That doesn't explain it". Trey shook his head. "I also went to an academy and I'm not that good".

Alexis didn't have a response to that statement so he just shrugged and continued walking. Trey continued to batter him with questions about football as they walked home. Alexis answered the first two or so questions but limited himself to shrugging his shoulder as Trey continued asking his question.

"That fucker has enough talent to be a fucking sports journalist". Alexis muttered under his breath. He was in front of his house and waved to Trey as he walked further down the street to his.

A/N:

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