八字万年历

Chapter 269: 2020/21 Liga NOS; Matchday 3

{GOAL!!!}

{Six of the best!}

{Finishing with a bang and it was a finish with a bang!}

{It’s the young player’s first goal for the club and you can see the excitement on his face as he celebrates with his teammates, happy to have impressed the manager!}

{The fans must be impressed by his efforts as well and now have another player to look forward to} The commentator delivered his commentary with fluency despite his excitement.

Sergio Conceicao on the sidelines nodded as he saw that his gamble had paid off, however, this did not automatically mean that Mylo had gotten a first-team spot yet.

All this goal had done was buy him more time to impress the Porto head manager and only if he proved that he could score goals consistently would Sergio Conceicao even consider elevating him to a first-team position.

Less than two minutes later, the referee blew the final whistle, bringing an end to the game with the score of Boavista 0 – 6 Porto.

With that Porto catapulted themselves to the top of the table with their absurd goal difference of +8 after just two matchdays in the new season.

Things were already looking for the defending champions as they once again rooted themselves at the top of the league table.

What was needed from the Porto team now was consistency in their results and the Porto fans did not have doubts that their team could stay on top of the league table.

The Porto players were also confident that they could retain their position at the top of the table by continually giving out good performances like this one and their confident attitudes could be seen on their faces as they walked off the pitch.

***

After the match, the Porto team spent the night at a hotel before returning to Porto the next morning with a week of training imminent.

There would be one more match before an international break between the 5th and 14th of October, 2020.

Jason had never received an international call-up before this time, and he wasn’t likely to receive one with him still in recovery from an injury.

As for whether he would receive an international call-up another time, he didn’t know yet, but he hoped to receive one and had already been planning for it.

He was eligible to receive an international call-up from two countries which were Nigeria and the USA.

Jason had tried to be objective with his choice between the two teams, but no matter how he tried to think about it, he was more biased towards Nigeria than America.

While the international competitions the two teams would be exposed to were around similar levels, the chasm between the talents available to the Nigerian team and those available to the American team was vast.

The talented players Jason currently knew to be in the Nigerian national team included Victor Osimhen at Napoli, Kelechi Ihenacho from Leicester City, Samuel Chukwueze at Villareal, Alex Iwobi at Everton, Zaidu Sanusi who played at the same club as Jason, and many others.

Yet the only two players that came to Jason off the top of his head when he thought about the American national team were Christian Pulisic who played for Chelsea, and Weston Mckennie who played for Schalke and among those two, it was clear that Christian Puliscic’s nationality as an American was due to his birth in the United States as he also had a Croatian nationality.

Jason didn’t know what Christian Puliscic was thinking when he chose the American national team over the Croatian national team, but Jason found it hard to make the same decision.

Thus at the moment, Jason was more inclined to the Nigerian national team than the American team, but his choice still depended on who came calling.

However, he believed that as long as he kept playing well, he should have the right to make a choice.

**3rd October 2020**

*6:30 pm*

Matchday 3 had arrived for the Porto side and they would be hosting Maritimo at the Estadio do Dragao.

As usual, Porto was using the 4-4-2 flat formation and their line-up was as follows,

GK: Augustin Marchesin,

LB: Zaidu Sanusi,

RB: Mattheus Uribe,

CBs: Pepe, Chancel Mbemba,

CMFs: Otavio, Fabio Viera,

RMF: Jesus Corona,

LMF: Luis Diaz,

CFs: Mehdi Taremi, Evanilson.

The pre-match formalities did not take much time and the match soon kicked off.

Right from the start of the game, the two teams went at each other, matching each other’s efforts and letting everyone know that it would be a tough game for both teams.

It didn’t take too long to open up the game and this was done by the Maritimo team.

In the 24th minute of the game, they caught Porto on the counter.

Nanu had sent a through pass to Rodrigo Pinho who darted through the open space and smoothly put the ball past Augustin Marchesin before running down the sidelines to celebrate.

The hearts of the Porto fans watching the game sank, but with utmost trust in their team, they thought to themselves that Porto could make a comeback.

The match continued soon after and time ran down, but just before half-time, the Porto team got a corner after a shot from Evanilson was blocked by a Maritimo defender.

Jesus Corona was the one who was to take the corner kick and at the referee’s whistle, he sent the ball curling inwardly into Maritimo’s penalty box.

The players of the two teams crashed against each other as they fought to get into position, but Pepe outmuscled his marker and leaped into the air to connect with the ball and send the ball flying into the top right corner of the Maritimo goal.

The Maritimo goalkeeper had dived and hoped to get a hand to the ball, but his hope remained that… hope, and he could only watch the ball smash past him and into the back of the net.