八字万年历

Chapter 224: Dragon Style VI

As he said, the Rangers players were not displaying the correct body language after their kick-off, and it wasn’t that they were playing like they had given up on winning, but rather it was because of how they were playing with reckless desperation.

It had been barely a minute since the Rangers team kicked off yet not only had they almost immediately lost the ball to the Porto team after trying to recklessly break through without any strategic passing, but even after losing the ball, they had violently tackled the Porto players while trying to immediately recover the ball and the referee had already called for a foul twice.

The Rangers team had seemingly lost all their composure after going behind even further after the second half began.

They were already short on time and now they had to score at least two goals to equalize with the Porto team while also making sure that they did not concede another goal.

It was only natural for them to lose their composure, still, the commentator as well as anybody else who had experience with football knew that playing like this would not help them in any way, but would rather make it even more difficult for them to get back.

In fact, playing like this would make it easier for Porto to elongate their lead even further and the manager had to curb this attitude from his players before the game went beyond saving.

On the sidelines, the Rangers manager started shouting out instructions to his players to try and help the players regain their composure and the players’ aggressiveness reduced a bit, but it didn’t completely stop.

The Porto team had slowly but surely taken control of the reins of the game and were dictating the tempo of the game anyhow they wanted, much to the dismay of the Rangers team which was constantly trying to increase the pace of the game, but Porto wasn’t allowing for such actions.

The Porto team passed the ball strategically among themselves and only launched an attack every few minutes whenever there was a very clear chance, otherwise, they didn’t take the risk and focused on possession and keeping the Rangers team penned in if they weren’t with the ball.

To most eyes, it would seem like Porto was playing a defensive game, and in a way they were, but it was a defensive game they were playing on their own terms because they were already in the lead by two goals.

This time Porto was on the attack again and Otavio had just received the ball back from Fabio Viera on the right side of the field after he had been unable to penetrate the Rangers defense from the right.

Since the right side was currently impenetrable, Otavio sent the ball toward Jason on the left.

Receiving the ball on the left side of the field, Jason made a move that surprised his marker.

Instead of trying to dribble past his marker and head down the left side of the field before trying to cut in, Jason instead flicked the ball to the right and headed towards the center parts of Rangers’ 18-yard box.

James Tavernier, Jason’s marker immediately gave chase, but Jason’s sudden change in direction had ensured that he was already on the back foot and he could only do his best by chasing as much as possible.

Jason who was being chased ignored his chaser for the time being as he had other problems.

He had chosen to go down the middle instead of down the left, but that meant that not only would he have to deal with his marker who was already chasing him, but he would also have to deal with the Rangers players guarding the center parts of the pitch and were standing between him and the Rangers goal.

Nevertheless, Jason didn’t hesitate due to this, instead, his body felt like it was heating up and his vision narrowed as he glanced around before locking onto his first target.

Glen Kamara, a Rangers midfielder was already charging at Jason from the right, wanting to end Jason’s run as soon as possible but as soon as he came close enough and lunged at Jason to tackle the ball from him, Jason’s right leg moved and flicked the ball into the space between his legs.

{Smooth evasion of his opponent from Jason!}

Jumping out of the way of Glen Kamara, Jason moved behind him to collect the ball once again and continued his run towards the Rangers goal and soon came across the second player from the Rangers team in his way, George Edmundson.

Not wanting to waste too much energy on dribbling alone through everyone when he had teammates, Jason passed the ball to Tiquinho Soares on his right and hopped past George Edmundson.

Soares did a one-touch pass to Jason and Jason received the ball and dragged it into a spin as if he was going to do a Cruyff turn, but as he came out of the spin, he flicked the ball through the legs of the last Rangers defender in front of the goal, Connor Goldson, who had unfortunately arrived near Jason.

{He’s gotten past the last man… Can he go all the way!?} the commentator’s voice rose into a high-pitched drone.

The ball rolled quickly between Connor’s legs despite his efforts to try and shut them before the ball passed through and Jason jumped past him to chase after the ball, but just as he got to the ball and was about to charge into the box, somebody from behind swept his leg away from under him and sent him crashing to the ground.

His momentum sent him rolling on the ground while he clutched his ankles in pain.

{He’s been brought down at the edge of the box after a splendid run!}

{He looks to be in pain with the way he’s clutching onto his ankle, but I’m sure he’s feeling a lot more hurt from his efforts going to waste!}

{Getting through three players almost all on his own and making it past the last man before he was brought down}

{What a player!}

{What does the referee have to say about that tackle!?} The commentator spoke as the referee ran up to James Tavernier and pulled out a yellow card from his breast pocket that he held up.

Immediately the Porto players protested that James Tavernier should have been shown a red card and not a yellow card because Jason had already been through on goal after getting past Connor Goldson before he was tackled from behind.

It was an obvious obstruction of a goal-scoring chance, but the referee didn’t seem to think so as he stuck with his decision of a yellow card for the Rangers captain.

On the sidelines, Steven Gerrard, the manager of the Rangers team heaved a sigh of relief.

It was definitely of great relief that not only had his team avoided conceding another goal, but the captain of the team had not been sent off as well.

If that had happened, the morale of the players would drop even lower, and gaining anything from the game would become an impossibility.

‘But still… that kid is good… too good for that age range,’ Steven Gerrard thought to himself as he watched Jason be pulled up by Fabio Viera.

Unfortunately, all Steven Gerrard could do was look even though he suddenly felt the desire to coach this type of player, but he knew from the information he had gathered that there was no way the Rangers team would be able to acquire a player like Jason.

Financially, they were unfit to do so, and even if they somehow scraped the money together to go forth with the deal and make an offer, would a player with as much talent as Jason want to come to a team like Rangers?

Ten out of ten times, the answer would be a “NO”.

That did not stop Gerrard from making a mental note about Jason though.

Back on the field, the referee was arranging the wall while Telles stood behind the ball, ready to take the free-kick once he heard the referee’s whistle.

The ball was placed on the ground a bit on the right of the Rangers goal and it was a distance of 23 yards away from the Rangers goal.

The referee was soon done arranging the wall and he sprayed the floor in front of the players’ feet with white paint before he stepped away from the wall and observed for a few seconds while holding up his whistle to his mouth.

*Fweeeeeeeee*

The referee’s whistle was blasted at full power and Telles ran at the ball with a confident gait and arched his body before hitting the ball powerfully with the side of his left foot and rifling a curling shot just over the wall of flesh and bones.

The ball flew powerfully in the air as it spun a curl and slammed into the top left corner of the Rangers goal while Allan McGregor was rooted to the spot and unable to react.