八字万年历

Chapter 338: International Debut I

The referee’s whistle blew loudly and the second half got underway.

It was Sierra Leone who kicked off the second half and as soon as the ball began moving, they immediately went on the attack, trying to immediately tap into their momentum from the previous half, but Nigeria responded in kind and charged at them with fervor.

#49th minute…

Sierra Leone had been pushing hard at the gate of Nigeria’s goal and had already sent quite a few shots at Nigeria’s goal, but they hadn’t managed to put any pressure on Madika Okoyi who had easily scooped up the ball every time it came his way.

However, he couldn’t let up completely either as the ball was currently being moved around in Nigeria’s half of the field by the Sierra Leone team.

A Sierra Leone midfielder sent the ball over to the left wing and the Sierra Leone player received the pass smoothly before facing off against Olai Aina.

The Sierra Leone right winger first tried to do a stepover to confuse the right back, but Aina wasn’t budging so the Sierra Leone player opted to feed the ball past him before chasing after the ball.

The ball flew past Aina and the Sierra Leone chased after the ball he fed forward, but Aina wasn’t easily letting him past and stayed on him, but the Sierra Leone player wasn’t budging and held Aina as they chased after the ball.

At this point the ball had rolled into Nigeria’s 18-yard box which was dangerous for the Nigeria team so Aina increased his efforts to push off the Sierra Leone player and all of a sudden, the player who was so hard to push off before, suddenly fell to the ground surprising the Nigerian right back whose hands immediately went up to signify his innocence, but the referee didn’t believe him and the whistle went off immediately.

*Fweeeeee* the referee blew hard as he ran over with his hands pointing to the penalty spot.

This singular gesture of the referee had the hearts of every Supa Eagles fan watching the game, the players, and the team manager, drop into depths of despair.

The Nigerian players immediately ran over to the referee to debate the foul, calling for a dive, but the referee wasn’t budging as he had seen Olai Aina slam into the Sierra Leone player from behind, sending him sprawling in the penalty box.

The replay of the scene also made this clear so the referee stuck with his decision much to the dismay of the Nigerian players who watched the Sierra Leone players already celebrating before they even played the penalty.

The Sierra Leone captain took up the ball to the penalty spot once the penalty was confirmed and the referee busted himself arranging the players outside the penalty box.

A few seconds later, everything was ready and everyone was in place and the referee’s whistle went to his mouth before blowing hard.

The Sierra Leone captain ran at the ball and smashed it hard into the bottom left corner while Madika Okoyi had dived right.

{Goal!}

{Well taken penalty!}

{The second half has barely begun, but they have made it four, once again taking a two-goal lead over their opponents!} The commentator spoke excitedly as the Sierra Leone players celebrated their fourth goal of the game while Nigerian players could only look on with bitter smiles on their faces.

On the sidelines, Gernot Rohri called out to Jason who he had told to begin warming up as soon as the penalty was given.

“Hurry over,” He said while his mind ran races in all directions.

His initial plan before the match was to bring Jason on much later in the second half as he had expected that they would be comfortably winning the game by then, but the game which had taken a surprising turn was now spinning out of control.

If there was any time to make changes to his plans and to make desperate moves, there couldn’t be any better moment than now.

They were already behind by two goals so the earlier he made changes, the better, otherwise time would soon run out.

Jason who had been called didn’t even think of dragging his legs as he wanted to get onto the pitch even more than the manager did.

For him, it wasn’t even about who was winning the game or not, he just wanted to play.

Of course, that did not mean he wanted to lose either.

This would be his international debut in two lifetimes so he definitely wanted it to end in a win.

Hence he quickly finished his warm-up routines and began donning his jersey which had the number 17 on its back.

As he was putting on his jersey and making sure everything was in place, Gernot Rohri was giving him instructions.

“You’re coming on for Moses, so Iwobi will move over to the left flank while you’ll take his place in the center, but the two of you are free to switch positions if the situation demands it,”

“Your job on the pitch is to make sure the ball gets forward. I don’t care how you plan to do it, but get the ball forward, and then whether you choose to score or send the ball to a teammate is up to you,”

“Just make sure their net is sent flying at least three more times before the referee blows the final whistle,” Gernot Rohri only gave a general idea of what he wanted from Jason because he understood that when dealing with young talents, it was best for the manager to let the player’s own creativity be the main thing on his mind.

Outliers like Jason had their own style of play and constraining them to a specific type of play which didn’t fit their talents usually did more harm than good so it was best to just let them be.

That was why special talents like that usually had a team built around them instead of being made to fit into a team.

Making everyone else play for them was the way to go and that was what Gernot Rohri was planning for.

He had quite literally made Jason the leader of the team and the only thing that remained was the captain band and even that would surely fall into Jason’s hands someday as long as he kept performing like he was already doing.

{The assistant referee is holding up the board and it seems like a player would be coming on for Nigeria}

Simeon Moses jogged over to the sidelines on seeing his number on the board in red and he high-fived Jason who ran onto the field, sweeping his hair away from his face and tying it up tightly behind his head.

{It’s Jason Bolu who is coming on and it will be his first international cap for Nigeria}

{After his impressive performances for Oporto since his debut in February, the Supa Eagles head manager couldn’t keep his hands to himself and leave such a talent out of international football}

{At his debut for Oporto, his team was down by two, and now that he’s finally getting his international debut, his nation is also down by two}

{Perhaps the manager is hoping that he could recreate the magic that helped his team back then, and considering the player’s qualities, I wouldn’t put it past him to do just that}

{Sierra Leone will need to put their guards up if they intend to hold on to their lead in the minutes to come} the commentator spoke extensively but the referee wasn’t bothering himself with the commentator and had blown his whistle to resume the game.

Jason had already told Iwobi the manager’s instructions and he received the ball from the kick off before passing it instantly to Ahmad Musa on the right.

# 57th minute…

Jason’s appearance on the pitch changed the dynamics of the whole game.

The Nigerian players whose confidence has been hit by going behind had received a slight boost when he came on and their performance from that moment on which had managed to start pushing back the Sierra Leone team had only further boosted their confidence.

They had already managed to get away three shots in the few minutes since he had come on and only the magnificent saves from the Sierra Leone goalkeeper had kept them from equalizing.

For Jason personally, he hadn’t been able to do much because he had become the focal point of the Sierra Leone defense ever since he came on, but this had in-turn, given his teammates more freedom on the ball and helped them to play better.

However, Jason wasn’t going to stay silent forever.

The Sierra Leone team was in possession and had been passing the ball around fluidly as they tried to regain control of the game, but Etebor suddenly intercepted a pass from the Sierra Leone team.

As soon as Etebor claimed the ball, the Nigerian attackers started dashing forward, freeing themselves for a pass from behind.

Jason who was near Osimen said in a low voice,

“Keep running.”