The pitch at the Charlton Athletic training ground was hosting a U18 match, yet a considerable number of fans had come to watch.
There were players’ families and friends, local die-hard Charlton Athletic fans, as well as journalists looking for a scoop and several club scouts.
Fans waved flags and shouted slogans.
“Charlton Athletic!
Come on!” “The Addicks!” “Addicks!
Addicks!” Theo followed the team onto the pitch.
The stands were already packed with spectators, who greeted the players enthusiastically as they came out to warm up, creating a lively atmosphere.
His gaze swept across the stands; there were over 1,000 spectators.
Considering this was only a U18 match, the turnout was impressive—the football atmosphere was far superior to that back home.
Most of them were loyal Charlton Athletic fans, wearing the team’s traditional red jerseys and waving flags emblazoned with the club’s “Swordsman” logo, just as they would for a First Team match.
He took a deep breath and walked over to the goal, beginning to inspect the setup: the height of the crossbar, the width of the posts, the integrity of the net, the slipperiness of the ground, and the condition of the turf inside the penalty area.
Theo even found several soda can tabs and bottle caps in the grass of the six-yard box, which he collected and placed outside the pitch.
After the inspection, he began his warm-up exercises under the coach’s direction.
High knees, agility ladder drills, push-ups, and sit-ups.
After loosening up his body, with help from Cousins and Jenkinson, he practiced basic hand positioning and catching, catching on the move, diving saves, high balls, and receiving and passing.
As the warm-up concluded, the atmosphere inside the stadium became even more animated.
At this point, the assistant coach began urging the players to return to the changing rooms for their final pre-match preparations.
As both teams stood at the center circle, ready to start the match, Theo looked at the key opposing players in the midfield and attack that he needed to watch out for: the core player Christopher Buchtmann, Ryan Frazer, and the two strikers, Michael Uwesue and Adam Watts.
There would be plenty of clashes with them today.
At exactly 3:00 PM, with the referee’s whistle, the youth league match between Charlton Athletic U18 and Fulham U18 began.
Fulham U18 kicked off first.
Midfielder Frazer passed the ball back to Christopher Buchtmann, who was near the center circle.
After receiving the ball, Christopher Buchtmann assessed the situation on the field.
Seeing Bellamy from Charlton Athletic rushing towards him, he deftly dragged the ball with his left foot and pushed it past him, bypassing his opponent before accelerating forward with the ball.
Gasps echoed from the stands as the spectators witnessed this.
Morris hurried forward to block his path, but Christopher Buchtmann didn’t give him a chance to make contact, instead delivering a powerful through ball that rolled past Morris.
Fulham’s Michael Uwesue had already made a run to the right flank and spotted the through ball.
Circling around Ajayi, who stood there like a wooden post, he cut inside and received the pass.
Danger!
Excited shouts erupted from the stands; they had only just kicked off, and already the opposition had penetrated the penalty area.
“Defend!
Defend!” Once Uwesue had the ball, there were no defenders in front of him.
Left center-back Cousins was still three meters away and couldn’t close the gap in time.
A one-on-one.
When Theo saw Ajayi’s half-hearted defensive effort, he had already anticipated this outcome.
At that moment, the system’s voice sounded.
[Ding!
Opponent’s shot trajectory detected, threatening the goal!
Do you wish to activate Block Moment?] Block Moment (Level 3): Predicts the opponent’s shot trajectory 1.5 seconds in advance.
Uses per match: 3/3.
It had been less than a minute since kickoff, and Theo didn’t want his debut to be marred by conceding a goal in the first minute.
[Activate!] Theo now knew that in half a second, the opponent would use his right foot to push the ball, aiming for the bottom right corner of his goal.
If he couldn’t intercept it, that shot would go in.
It would be a beautiful opening counter-attack, but he would become the goalkeeper who conceded a goal in the very first minute.
Even if it wasn’t his fault, he would still be nailed to the pillar of shame.
But now that he knew the trajectory, it was much simpler.
He adjusted his position, moved half a step to the right, and stepped forward, feigning an attempt to block the shooting angle.
Moving at high speed, the opponent fired a shot.
“Gotcha!” Theo felt calm inside.
He threw himself to the right, fully extending his arms to dive towards the ball in the air.
“Bang!” The ball made contact with his gloves.
Theo intercepted the ball mid-air with both hands, and as his body hit the ground, he clutched the ball tightly to his chest.
[Ding!
Successful save!
Points +1!] [Current points: 2!] After kicking the ball to Pell outside the penalty area, Theo continued to focus on the match.
After that one-on-one, Charlton Athletic U18, organized by Pell, began to stabilize and trade blows with the opposition in midfield.
During this time, there were a few low-quality crosses and corners, which Theo easily dealt with without needing to use any skills.
Theo silently calculated his points.
Including the 1 point he just gained, he now had 2 points—this was growing much faster than during regular training.
As the match progressed, both sides seemed to adapt to each other’s rhythm, leading to a stalemate and a lull in the game.
In the 40th minute, from a Fulham throw-in on the left, Christopher Buchtmann received the ball.
With a feint near midfield, he delivered a long, semi-high ball with his left foot that pierced through Charlton Athletic’s advanced defensive line.
The ball landed behind them, and it was Uwesue again; having anticipated it, he relied on his speed to sprint towards the penalty area.
Ajayi hurried to keep up.
As for Theo, he assessed the long ball played behind the defense; it wasn’t very fast, and the distance was manageable.
He decided to charge out early to block the line, confident he could easily deal with it even without using a skill.
He shouted loudly, “Mine!” But, as it happened, someone else didn’t see it that way.
Just as Uwesue touched the ball and prepared to dribble, and just as Theo was about to pounce on the ball, Ajayi violently dragged Uwesue down from behind.
“Beep!” At that moment, the referee’s whistle blew, pointing directly to the penalty spot.
“Penalty!”