八字万年历

Chapter 111: First Start IV

The path of the ball was very direct and wasn’t angled at any of the four corners of the goal, yet despite the Santa Clara goalkeeper trying to push the ball away, the ball only barely deflected off its intended path and slammed past the keeper into the back of the net.

Jason watched the ball go in with eager eyes and as soon as he saw the ball go past the goal line, he darted down the sidelines towards the stands where the traveling Porto fans were, dodging his teammates along the way.

Upon reaching the front of the cheering Porto fans, Jason Jumped high with his right fist pumping into the air as if to give an imaginary uppercut.

{Goal!!!}

{Magnificent! Absolutely Magnificent!}

{It’s his first start for the club and he had to have his say!}

{He unleashed an absolutely sacrilegious run and went through one, two, three defenders before unleashing a rocket of a shot that needless to say, was too hot to handle} Accompanying Jason in his celebrations was the commentator displaying his expertise and riling up the crowds in the stadium as well as those watching the match in other locations with the aid of technology.

The stadium was filled with three kinds of sounds at that moment; some were from the cheering of the Porto fans, another was the commentator, while the third was the occasional impressed shout from the Santa Clara team as even the Santa Clara fans knew that Jason’s goal was nothing short of impressive.

They didn’t even have it in them to boo at the Porto team as Jason’s performance that led up to the goal had absolutely stunned them out of their minds and they were left dumbfounded, impressed, and quite bitter.

After all, no matter how impressed they were by Jason, it was still a fact that he was by all rights “clapping” their team, and that was not a matter for them to smile about so they could only content themselves with silence while a scarce few of them let out impressed sounds.

Despite the beauty of the goal, the Porto team didn’t celebrate for too long and soon headed back to their half for the match to continue, and shortly after, the Santa Clara team kicked off the game in the 34th minute.

The match kicked off again and the Porto players surged into the Santa Clara team’s half of the field, their morale boosted by their first goal of the game.

Of course, the Santa Clara team fought back and they did so quite valiantly, making sure to put an end to any of Porto’s attacks that could potentially lead to Porto furthering their lead.

For a moment, the match came to a standstill with both sides starting attacks but not able to make it past the defensive line of the opposition team.

Jason wished to break the match out of a standstill, but his intentions were not shared by the Santa Clara team in quite the same way and Jason was currently receiving some special attention from the Santa Clara team.

The players around him were doing their best to block any passing lanes that led to him so he hardly ever got the ball and whenever he got the ball, the whole Santa Clara team immediately engaged a press to retrieve the ball while also effectively cutting off all his passing lanes, thus he wasn’t able to do much more than retain possession for a few seconds before passing to a teammate.

The end of the first half rapidly approached while the deadlock continued, but just as the assistant referee on the sidelines held up the board to show that there would be two minutes of extra time Porto suddenly burst out on the attack.

Jason who was with the ball was being marked by two players who standing in front of him.

One of them was trying to prevent him from moving forward while the other stood about 135 degrees just behind the first player.

Jason seeing the two players lining up just like the obstacles in agility drills couldn’t resist trying to get between them.

He pushed the ball forward towards the first player, almost as if he intended to collide with him head-on, then he turned his body slightly almost at the right minute as if he wanted to go past the player’s right side.

The Santa Clara player immediately tried to block Jason’s path when with a sudden stamp of his foot against the green turf, Jason changed directions and darted to the right, sweeping the ball along with him with his right foot.

Just after getting halfway past the first Santa Clara player, Jason noticed the second defender’s leg lunging at the ball at an alarming pace, but Jason didn’t lose his composure as he had planned for this and his planned motion hadn’t reached an end.

Jason’s right leg that was sweeping over the ball suddenly went over the ball and arrived at the other side of the ball, before suddenly flicking the ball to the right, effectively performing a reverse elastico and escaping the two Santa Clara players.

Jason then jumped over the defender’s foot the next second and rushed after the ball.

Upon reaching the ball, Jason whipped the ball over toward the left side of the pitch with a long cross-field pass.

The ball flew into the path of a running Luiz Diaz who controlled the ball’s power while pushing the ball forward with a deft flick of his foot, not letting the ball bounce out of control.

Running after the ball that he had pushed forward, Luiz Diaz left his marker eating his dust as he caught up to the ball and cut right toward the Santa Clara penalty box, scanning the area for his teammates before deciding his next move.

Seeing Ze Luis nearby, Luis Diaz immediately released the ball to Ze Luis who was just arriving into Santa Clara’s 18-yard box.

The ball flew into Ze Luis’s path, but Ze Luis suddenly saw a Santa Clara player appearing in his front view and immediately realized that he couldn’t afford to try trapping the ball as the ball would be swept away from his foot the next moment after he did so.

Shooting the ball with his first touch wasn’t possible either as firstly, the angle was wrong and secondly, the player in his front would be able to block the shot even if he managed to get the shot away, but as a professional player of a team like FC Porto, Ze Luis’s quick thinking was a fair notch above what one would normally expect and he soon came up with a solution that albeit risky was the only possible choice that wouldn’t lead to killing the attack.

As the ball arrived just in front of him, Ze Luis’s leg suddenly shot forward and he pushed the ball forward past the defender’s left side before running after the ball.

The Santa Clara defender had been surprised by this sudden move of Ze Luis and had been too surprised to react to the ball that suddenly rolled past him before he could react, but he quickly recovered and did his best to hold Ze Luis from going after the ball as whatever Ze Luis’s plan was, it could not happen if he could not touch the ball.

Unfortunately, the player underestimated Ze Luis’s planning and determination, as Ze Luis easily shook him off and chased after the ball that the Santa Clara team’s goalkeeper was already charging at.

Just barely managing to reach the ball before the goalkeeper, Ze Luis just managed to cross the ball back to the right and across the front of the goal, while he hoped that one of his teammates could manage to catch the ball and slot it into the open net before the ball rolled out of control.