Thanks for the power stones, but I’m not getting any notifications about them.
So thank you anyway; I really appreciate it.
Here’s the chapter, though.
Anne Hathaway watched the spectacle from the comfort of a private executive box.
The glass separating her from the roaring crowd did little to muffle the atmosphere of the Theatre of Dreams.
She leaned forward, her doe eyes transfixed on the towering, number 17 figure gliding across the damp green pitch below.
She had known Rico was good; his time in the MLS had made him look like a god amongst mere mortals.
But this was the Premier League; he wasn’t just great compared to American players; he was great compared to some of the best in Europe.
And these weren’t just low-tier players he was humiliating.
This was Manchester United.
These were legendary men who had won everything there was to win, Champions Leagues, domestic doubles, global accolades.
As a lifelong Arsenal fan, Anne took pleasure in what her boyfriend was doing.
The referee blew his whistle, and the second half started with intensity as Manchester United kept trying to be physical with him.
However, Rico just kept playing through it, unfazed by their brutality.
Roy Keane kept following him everywhere, a terrifying shadow desperate to impose his will on the game.
United eventually had some tactical success as they kept Fulham firmly under the cosh, launching wave after wave of relentless red attacks, but they failed to convert their heavy possession into a goal.
The pressure reached a boiling point when Van Der Sar was forced to pull out a great save.
The wet ball rebounded and fell back to Diego Forlan in the penalty area.
Forlan went to hit it, but Rico was there, throwing his body across the grass to block the shot as it went high over the crossbar for a corner that led to nothing.
Moments later, the pressure continued as Edwin Van Der Sar stepped up to take a goal kick.
It was a poor delivery; it went far too high and wide, slicing through the air as it nearly went out for a throw-in near the halfway line.
However, reading the terrible trajectory, Rico rapidly rotated over and cleanly won the header, flicking the ball perfectly over the United backline.
Luís Boa Morte ran onto it, sprinting down the wing as Gary Neville furiously chased after him.
Neville managed to force Boa Morte far out wide toward the touchline, neutralising the immediate threat.
Seeing his winger isolated, Rico came over to get the ball and offer a passing option.
Boa Morte tried to play it back to him, but the ball was overhit.
It bypassed Rico and went right to Ryan Giggs, who instantly turned and ran, launching a blistering counter-attack.
Rico followed from behind as Jerome Bonnisel was there to cover the space.
As Giggs rapidly approached the defensive line, he tried to check back, only for Rico to poke it past Bonnisel, who had stepped up to commit to the tackle.
Giggs, refusing to give up, turned and ran onto the loose ball as Rico chased him down the flank.
Giggs barely managed to get there first before Rico launched into a ferocious slide tackle.
The ball was careening out of bounds, but Rico got up and got there first, preventing it from going out for a corner.
Instead of hastily clearing it, Rico took a moment, trying to slow the frantic pace of the game down.
He stood still until Giggs and Forlan finally came sprinting over to press him.
Rico just kicked it hard off an approaching Diego Forlan.
The ball ricocheted off the Uruguayan striker’s shins and went safely out for a Fulham goal kick.
Van Der Sar placed the ball down to take the goal kick.
Rico gestured for Louis Saha to drop deep and drag the United centre-backs out of position.
As Van Der Sar ran up to strike the ball, Rico dropped short to receive it.
Roy Keane followed him like a rabid dog, taking the bait.
The ball came zipping across the grass, but Rico let the ball run right through his open legs.
Keane, who had followed suit and overcommitted to the tackle, was left stranded.
The ball went right to Saha, who held off his marker and laid it off perfectly for Rico, who had spun around Keane.
Without breaking stride, Rico hit it first time on his left foot.
The pass was sublime as it bent beautifully behind Mikael Silvestre and right into the path of Bjarne Goldbæk on the right wing, who ran onto the ball with acres of space.
Goldbæk drove down the wing before he checked back inside.
He had a brief moment to lay it back to Rico, who had arrived on the edge of the box.
Rico had plenty of time, looking up and whipping a dangerous cross to the back post.
Wes Brown was forced to rise high and clear it away with a desperate header.
Rico was annoyed by the poor placement of his own cross as he Rico furiously chased after the loose ball.
He arrived just in time to take a chest touch, knocking it past a Paul Scholes.
As the ball dropped, Rico wound up and hit it on the volley with violence.
But he had gotten it all wrong as it went flying high over the crossbar, sailing right into the jeering Manchester United fans in the Stretford End.
Despite the two-goal deficit, Manchester United were a team used to late comebacks.
They continued to relentlessly keep Fulham under pressure, throwing bodies forward with a desperate intensity that pinned the London side deep inside their own final third.
The constant bombardment of crosses and physical challenges finally broke the resilient Fulham defensive structure.
Diego Forlan managed to find a pocket of space inside the chaotic box, rising highest to score off a cross from Paul Scholes, burying the header past Van Der Sar to make it 2-1 and revitalising the stadium.
The momentum had shifted, and Fulham kept bringing pressure on themselves through.
Goldbæ played a terribly under-hit, bad pass to Rico in the center of the pitch.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, smelling blood, came sprinting to get the loose ball.
Rico and Van Nistelrooy went hurtling into a dangerous 50/50 challenge.
Rico went sliding in with bone-crunching commitment.
Nistelrooy made a business decision, pulling his leg back to avoid the impact.
The ball ricocheted safely back to a Fulham centre-back, who calmly played it out wide to Bonnisel.
However, the panic hadn’t subsided.
Rico dropped to get an errant pass from Bonnisel that came right at his knees.
Roy Keane was right behind him, breathing down his neck and ready to clatter him as Rico flicked the ball around the United captain in one seamless motion.
The ball went straight to Saha, and Saha laid it back into Rico’s path.
Rico collected the ball and went to drive forward, breaking the defensive line.
But Roy Keane launched into slide tackle from behind, scything Rico down and getting near the ball.
The referee blew his whistle, calling the foul.
Rico instantly got up, as he grabbed the ball to take the quick free kick, but Roy Keane deliberately leaning his body into the teenager to stop him from playing it.
Rico shoved Keane, sending the legendary enforcer tumbling to the ground.
Keane popped right back up, his face red with rage, and shoved Rico back.
The two massive egos got right in each other’s faces, as the stadium erupted into bedlam as players from both teams swarmed the center circle, having to drag the two furious midfielders back by their shirts.
Rico just stood there, shaking his head smiling as Keane was given a yellow card for the cynical challenge, while Rico was handed a stern verbal warning from the referee for the retaliation.
Desperate to inject some attacking flair and turn the tide, Sir Alex Ferguson brought on some eighteen-year-old Portuguese kid named Cristiano Ronaldo, swapping him in for Van Nistelrooy.
Unbothered by the tactical change, Rico made it his mission to establish total control over the midfield.
He kept playing an infuriating game of keep-away with the frantic United players.
He would execute a safe pass to a teammate, just to point at his feet and demand the ball right back a second later.
He was content on letting the clock dry out, orchestrating possession and methodically draining the remaining minutes away as the home crowd grew increasingly irate with every single completed pass.
Trying to advance the play, Rico executed a pass to Steed Malbranque.
However, Malbranque misjudged the pace of the wet ball, allowing Paul Scholes to step in.
Malbranque and Scholes got into a scuffle in the middle of the pitch for the ball, as Rico came striding over, stepping into the chaotic fray and putting his studs firmly on top of the ball to stop the play.
He was quickly and pressed by both Scholes and Keane, who converged on him like wolves as Rico rolled his boot over the top of the ball, slipping it right past the two as they hopelessly chased his shadow as the ball was already gone as Rico passed it out wide to Boa Morte.
Boa Morte took a touch and went to play a swift pass back for Rico, but the ball was errant.
It skidded across the wet turf and went right into the path of the newly substituted Ronaldo.
Ronaldo instantly tried to run with it, but Rico chased him down.
As Ronaldo tried to knock the ball across Rico to beat him on the outside, Rico put his body across the Portuguese winger’s path.
Ronaldo tried to tussle for the ball, but Rico was built like a tank, and he gave a barge back as he sent Ronaldo to the ground.
Rico didn’t even look back.
He cleanly turned and used the outside of his boot to hit a curving pass around Gary Neville.
The ball curled right into the path of Boa Morte as he ran onto it deep in the final third.
Neville realised he was beaten launched into a slide tackle just to clear it over the byline for a Fulham corner.
Rico stood in the midfield, visibly disappointed that Neville had even managed to get there to stop the attack.
As Rico jogged past the halfway line, he looked down and stared at Ronaldo, who was sitting on the grass adjusting his high white socks after being bullied off the ball.
Rico stopped.
He extended his large hand out, offering to help his fellow Portuguese speaker up off the turf.
Ronaldo, looking slightly surprised by the sportsmanship, reached his hand up and went to take it.
But Rico withdrew his hand before Ronaldo could take it.
He turned his back on the humiliated winger and walked up the pitch toward the penalty area, leaving Ronaldo sitting there grasping at thin air.
The Old Trafford crowd was feral as Rico jogged into the crowded penalty box.
Diego Forlan was tasked with picking Rico up, grabbing a fistful of his jersey to try and anchor the towering midfielder.
Boa Morte stepped up to the corner flag and managed to get a brilliant cross into the danger zone.
Rico darted past Forlan, losing his marker in a sea of bodies and headed the ball with ferocity straight past a diving Tim Howard to make it 3-1.
The stadium fell into a stunned silence.
As Rico landed on the grass, he turned and casually jogged right past Roy Keane.
Rico raised a single finger to his lips, looking the legendary captain dead in the eye, and told him to shush.
The game was done.
But in the dying embers of stoppage time, Ronaldo got the ball out wide on the left flank.
Desperate to prove himself to the home fans, the Portuguese teenager started doing a dazzling series of stepovers, trying to trick his way past Moritz Volz.
Ronaldo executed a brilliant feint and finally managed to get past the Fulham defender, bursting into the penalty area.
But before Ronaldo could even pull his leg back to shoot, Rico came flying out of nowhere as he wrapped his leg around the ball, stripping Ronaldo of possession and sending the ball safely out of play as the referee finally blew his whistle, bringing the monumental game to a definitive end.
3-1 Fulham.
A/N) I can already see they don’t know what they would accomplish together.
Also, I want to say something.
I think Rico should retire from International Football at some point in this story.
But when he does, he’s 34, so in 2019.
He’s not like Messi or Ronaldo, who are chasing those accomplishments because he’s already won a World Cup, Copa América or Euros multiple times.
(No matter if it’s Brazil or England, he will have the most trophies ever for that Nation) And when he retires, he’s still treated like a god by the fanbases for what he’s done, as every time there’s a tournament they beg and plead for him to play, and even when he doesn’t, they’re still there for the next tournament wanting him to come back.
I can see him being like, “I’ve already done all that I can; it’s time the younger players take my place.” This will be in 2019, whether it’s Copa America or the Nations League And I can show a part of him wants to play, but he knows his body can’t handle International Tournaments anymore (when we get near the end of the story, he can only play one game a week; any more than that, he looks washed) And the reason he comes back for the World Cup 2026 is that there is a public cry for him to come back, as they keep talking about Last Dance.