Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 34: Porto Juniors vs Familicao U-19: Second Half Begins

*Fweeeeee*

The referee blew the whistle to signify the beginning of the second half and Goncalo who was standing over the ball passed the ball back to Joao Teixeira and with that, the second half had begun.

The Porto side passed the ball around cleverly and avoided losing possession carelessly to the Familicao side as they slowly advanced into the opposing half.

The Familicao players gave chase, but despite putting a halt to Porto Juniors attacks quite a few times and even gaining possession and pushing them back a bit, the Porto Juniors side was the one with the momentum and continually pushed them far back into their own half until the only thing they were doing was defending.

The face of the Familicao U19 team’s coach turned very dark as he watched his team fall into a fix despite all the game plan revisions he had taken his players through at half time and his heart jumped every time it looked like the Porto Juniors team would break through his team’s defense, but his team somehow managed to hold on every time… at least until the 57th minute.

The Familicao had been defending at full focus ever since the second half started and after more than ten minutes of almost perfect defending, the focus of some players on their side finally broke, the pressure taking its toll on them.

Tiago Andrade, the Porto’s left winger had just gotten past Joao Santos with a clever one-two pass routine with Joao Teixeira and had found Gonalo Sousa to be free so he had sent the ball his way.

Goncalo received the ball with his back to the Familicao goal, but he had used his body to shield the ball away from Hugo Oliveira while he turned his body to face the goal and shot the ball immediately the Familicao goalkeeper came into view.

The ball flew powerfully towards the right side of the Familicao goal but the goalkeeper managed to make a dive and punch the ball away with a fist.

The ball that had been punched away by Tomas Perreira flew towards the right throwing line, but just before rolling out of play, an outstretched leg snapped into the ball’s path and stopped it from going any further.

Jason had made use of his very high acceleration ability to chase after the ball the moment he saw the ball flying towards the right side of the field and had just barely managed to catch it before it went out of play, but before he could get the ball under control, he was rammed into from behind by an opposing team player, throwing him off balance.

Without bothering to look at the box, he swung his leg to send a cross into the box and fell over immediately due to forcing himself to make that cross instead of stabilizing himself.

The ball flew into the penalty box towards an arriving Mylo who volleyed the ball mid-flight and sent it into the back of the net, the keeper rooted to the spot.

GOAL!!!

4 : 2

{Stupendous! Exciting! Exhilarating!}

{What a shocker! The young striker sends the ball into the back of the net with a bang. It is his second goal today and it is a great goal} The commentator performed various mouth gymnastics as he spoke, but all the fans were screaming too excitedly to pay him any attention at the moment.

Mylo ran towards the sidelines with his arms swinging rapidly and he did a few back flips in excitement before going to hug Jason, the rest of the team approached joyously as the crowd’s cheering shook the CTFD Portogaia training center despite the stands not being completely filled up.

Soon, the celebrations came to an end with the referee’s prompting and the players were soon back in position for the kickoff to resume the game.

The Familicao U19 team kicked off and unlike them playing with crushed spirits like one would expect, the Porto team scoring seemed to have infuriated them and they attacked the Porto Junior’s side with renewed vigor.

They continuously sent players forward and played long splitting passes, all while trying to get behind the defense, and whenever they ended up losing possession, they pressed aggressively to get the ball back and before long a chance opened up for them.

In the 64th minute, Toki Yukutomo managed to find Leonardo de Oliveira who cleverly flicked the ball past Fabio Amaral and ran into the box, but Fabio who had been lambasted by Antonio during the half-time break was not having it and quickly gave chase before making a tackle for the ball, sending Leonardo to the floor in the penalty box and the ball out of play.

The players of the Familicao side quickly ran towards the referee trying to get a call for a penalty, but the referee paid them no heed as he had seen everything that had happened and knew that despite the tackle being a bit rough, Fabio had gotten a leg on the ball and Leonardo only fell because he didn’t get out of the way of the tackle.

Despite the Familicao’s player’s arguments for a penalty, the referee called for a corner kick instead and the players had no choice but to get into the penalty box disappointed at not having gotten a penalty.

Before the corner was taken, the assistant referee on the sidelines held up the board for a substitution for both teams.

For the Familicao U19 side, the right winger, Mauro Ribeiro was coming off for Rudi Almeida while for the Porto Juniors side, the left winger, Tiago Andrade would be coming off for Jeremy Agbonifo.

The new players came on the field and went to their assigned positions, readying themselves for the Familicao corner kick.

*Fweeee*

Leonardo sent a curling ball from the corner into the box where his teammates awaited, poised to send the ball towards the Porto Juniors goal.

As the ball approached the cross, the players of both teams jumped to catch the ball mid-air but it was Mariano from the Porto Juniors team that got his head to the ball first and sent the ball in the opposite direction of his team’s goal.

The ball flew outside of the Porto Juniors penalty area and ended up falling to the legs of the newly substituted player of their team, Jeremy.

As soon as Jeremy got the ball at his feet, he sent the ball forward to the only other player ahead of him, trying to initiate a counter-attack.

Jason was the player that Jeremy had sent the ball towards and he was doing his best to hold off the player behind him that was trying to prevent him from receiving the pass.

Suddenly, Jason made a feint as if he was going to receive the pass, but instead let the ball pass through his legs and the legs of the player hassling him from behind, before escaping from the surprised player’s grasp and running around him to catch the ball before it rolled too far away.

The cheers from the crowd increased by a notch as he escaped the player and began the counter.

With the ball at his feet once again, Jason took off in the direction of the Familicao goal at a lightning-fast pace, making full use of his calf muscles to pump himself forward, the shouts from the crowd increasing with every step he took.

Just after getting to the middle of the pitch he found himself faced with two defenders from the Familicao team that were the last obstacles before he was face to face with the goalkeeper and they were closing on him rapidly.

Hugo Oliveira arrived first and tried to block his path, his intention to stall for enough time for support to arrive from his teammates to aid him in stopping the counter-attack.

Jason slowed his pace a bit before suddenly pushing the ball with the tip of his foot as if trying to get past Hugo but as soon as Hugo reacted to try and stop him, he moved his foot past the ball and snapped it back, performing an elastico and moving past Hugo before he could correct his posture.